


Novaturience

by beckettjoy



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Underage Drinking, benarmie, rated for later chapters, theyre both just kind of dorks, this is a combination of some of my favorite tropes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-23 15:42:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13790865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckettjoy/pseuds/beckettjoy
Summary: "How does 'Hey dude, please make out with me to make my ex jealous' turn into 'My mom bought you a plane ticket to our house for Thanksgiving break because she think's we're dating'?? What the hell, Ben."





	1. Chapter 1

**Friday, October 5**

 

Beneath the horrible strobe lights, Hux braces himself against the basement wall that’s rumbling along with the bassline of whatever terrible song is pumping out around him, fingers wrapped around a cup he’s not really sure where he got, trying very hard to remember why he’s at a party, and where Phasma said she’d gone off to. 

Hux thinks he’s imagining it when a large hand wraps around his hip — he certainly doesn’t know anyone well enough for that — and he turns to tell the person that they’d drunkenly mistaken him for someone else, but the words catch in his throat when he sees who it is. 

Hux has only spoken to Ben Solo a handful of times in the year since they met at freshman orientation, but that hasn’t stopped Hux from pining after him every time they pass each other on campus or in the dining hall, especially since Ben is more-often-than-not fresh from a workout, in tank tops that show off his arms (and if Hux is lucky, the tattoo stretching across his right shoulder-blade), with his hair half-tied up in a way that never fails to make Hux want to run his hands through it.

So Hux can’t really speak when he sees Ben’s face looming above his, feels around his waist a strong hand he’d thought about more times than he’s likely to admit. Hux’s mouth opens slightly as he steadies himself against the wall and struggles to lift his head up, weighed down by equal parts shock and alcohol. 

“Hey, dude, I really need your help,” Ben says over the music pounding around them.

Hux hates how he can’t help himself from replying, “I think you have the wrong person.”

But Ben just shakes his head and leans down to half-yell in Hux’s ear, “I can’t hear what you said. Anyway, can you please just really quick make out with me? My ex is here and I told him I had a new boyfriend and shit because I didn’t think it would ever be relevant, but I really want to make him jealous, can you help me? Please?”

What…the fuck… is all Hux can think, surreptitiously pinching his thigh to make sure he’s not hallucinating. But no, Ben is still there, his body practically covering Hux’s, his hand still looped around Hux’s waist, with his forehead twisted up in an adorably earnest way as he waits for Hux’s response. 

Because Hux has absolutely no fucking clue what to say, he takes a large gulp from the cup he’s been clutching for dear life, almost coughing because he forgot his cup contained nothing but cheap vodka. 

“Why me?” he asks finally, refusing to look up into Ben’s (gorgeous brown) eyes. 

Leaning in closer to Hux, Ben answers rapidly, “‘Cause you’re like, the opposite of him, and you’re cool, and I know you’re not straight which, to be honest, is a pretty vital characteristic in this situation.”

_I’m cool I’m cool I’m cool I’m cool I’m cool I’m_

“So? Please dude.”

Ben is so close to Hux now that he can feel Ben’s warm breath on his cheek, and the shots Hux had (stupidly) done with Phasma a few minutes ago have just hit his system, and Hux can’t think of one reason why he shouldn’t say yes. 

So he downs what’s left of his cup, tosses it onto the floor, wraps his hands around Ben’s neck, smiles, and nods. 

 

***

**Sunday, October 6**

 

Hux forces his sticky eyes open at just after 11am and immediately staggers into the shower, trying (unsuccessfully) to scrub the stench of alcohol off himself, mentally chastising himself for getting convinced that a house party was a good idea, when he already knows he _hates_ house parties. When he gives up on trying to feel clean, Hux leaves the shower and brushes his teeth, taking much longer than normal, although the bathroom light makes his head pound so much that he forgoes either shaving or gelling his hair once he’s done (he doesn’t plan on leaving his apartment today), opting to just put on his robe. He trudges into the kitchen for something to eat and something to alleviate his headache. His phone chimes from somewhere in the other room but he decides to make some eggs first, and try to get some reading done for his gothic literature class — he _never_ wakes up this late, so he’s already well behind his weekend schoolwork schedule. At least he doesn’t have an early shift at the restaurant today; he’s on 4:00-close.

Hux has just spooned his (perfectly fluffy) scrambled eggs onto a plate with some toast and is opening the fridge for some juice when there’s a loud knock on the door.

“Fuck off,” Hux whispers, but walks to open it anyway, knowing that the only person it could possibly be is his best (and only) friend.

Phasma’s standing there munching a bagel; when she sees Hux she shakes her head and pushes past him into the apartment. Hux pours his orange juice before sitting next to her on the living room couch (his apartment isn’t big enough for an actual table, much to his chagrin), spreading a towel over his lap as he starts on his breakfast, and Phasma starts in on him. 

“Do you remember anything that happened yesterday?” she asks, exasperated, pulling off a chunk of bagel with a bit more force than necessary. 

“Not much,” Hux admits around some egg. Honestly, nothing after Ben had approached him. “Nothing too embarrassing, I hope.”

Phasma lets out a long sigh, the kind of sigh that tells Hux he’s really not going to like what she says next. 

“Do you remember making out with Ben Solo?” Hux shakes his head. “Well, you did, I have no idea why, because I only noticed after this other dude came over and made a whole scene, yelling at him and everything. I dunno if that was his boyfriend or what, but I got you out of there fast while they were arguing and just brought you back here. I practically had to carry you, you were so out of it. What happened? This is so unlike you.”

Now that she mentions it, yes, vaguely, Hux remembers making out with Ben Solo, mostly that it was a completely underwhelming experience. And then his mind starts to cycle through all the reasons he shouldn’t have done it: he was completely content to just admire Ben from afar and never come into contact with him; he probably thinks Hux is super desperate or something; Hux was in no state to be kissing anyone; his mouth probably tasted absolutely disgusting; and not that Hux would ever admit it, but he’s never actually kissed anyone (other than one time when he was 13, but it really doesn’t count). 

“What happened is you took me to a house party,” Hux grumbles, not really in the mood to have Phasma there anymore.

“But why him? You don't even know him,” Phasma presses, “and if he has a boyfriend, that’s even worse.”

“He doesn’t.” Hux sighs, figuring it’s best to just tell her what happened because he will eventually, even if it makes him look stupid and desperate. However, he’s never told her about his year-long crush, and he’s not about to now. “He asked me to do it because that’s his ex and he wanted to make him jealous. I agreed because he’s hot and I was drunk, and it’s not like anything’s going to come out of it. I’m sure ten different things like that happened at the same party. I don't even really remember it happening.”

“Nothing’s going to…” Phasma starts, running a hand through her hair and grimacing. “Armie, he’s…Ben has a reputation. A pretty big one, and it’s pretty bad. Have you really never heard anything about it?”

Hux immediately pales, head snapping up to look her in the eye. “What…what are you talking about?”

“Oh, honey, Ben is…” Phasma puts a comforting hand on Hux’s knee, “well, to be honest, he’s a fuckboy. He’s in this school because his parents are loaded, so he can get away with a lot, and he does. He also will basically fuck any guy with a pulse. I mean, I know you’re out of the loop, but I didn’t know it was that much…”

Great. Fucking great. Hux feels even worse now. More than just feeling icky and desperate, he also feels completely exploited; Ben just completely took advantage of Hux because he happened to be there. Thank God Phasma showed up, Hux has a feeling he wouldn’t have been able to refuse anything else that Ben requested. He probably doesn’t even know Hux’s name, he just called him “dude”; he probably doesn’t remember meeting Hux ever; he probably would have done the same thing with any drunk guy that happened to be standing where Hux was. Also, how did he even know Hux ins’t straight? Was that just a guess? A bluff? Because if not, then that’s just weird. And sort of creepy. 

A day ago, Hux would have totally overanalyzed the fact that Ben chose him, would have thought himself so special, would have been completely flattered. Except now, every single bit of attraction he felt towards Ben is instantly gone.

“I thought you’d want to know,” Phasma says, breaking into Hux’s thoughts. “And, um, there’s something else. I don’t want you to stumble upon it yourself, so I figure I’ll just tell you.” She pauses, taking a breath. “Some people took photos, on Snapchat and stuff, and they’re circulating. Luckily, you can’t really see you, ‘cause you were between Ben and the wall, but people still know its you. It should blow over pretty quick, but I thought you’d want to know. Just in case anyone says something to you. I dunno.”

Hux feels a bit nauseous. He doesn’t really want to talk about this anymore. “I think I’m going to, um,” Hux flaps a hand around vaguely. “get some stuff done. I’m working tonight, so…”

“Yeah, absolutely. I’ll leave you to it.” Phasma smiles a bit sadly before standing, and ruffles Hux’s hair, making it even messier than it already was. “I never see you so casual, it’s cute,” she says, trying to lighten the mood. Hux just raises an eyebrow skeptically. 

“Thanks for telling me everything. And next time, listen to me when I say I don’t want to go out!” Hux says, laughing, and gets up to walk Phasma to the door. 

She chuckles too, stepping into the doorway. “It’ll be fine, Armie. You definitely have your head on straight, so you’ll be okay. I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah.”

Hux lets the door fall shut behind her, the echoes of its slamming reverberating through him. _It’ll be fine,_ he tells himself as he heads back into the living room to get started on his schoolwork. That’s always a good distraction, and makes the time pass easily. He still has a few hours left before his shift at the Italian restaurant next to campus, where he’s a part-time host. _I’ll be fine._

***

**Sunday, October 7**

 

Hux spends the day writing an essay for his history course and feeling regretful.

There haven’t yet been any consequences of Friday night, but nevertheless, he still gets a queasy feeling in his stomach whenever he thinks about it, and there’s always time. After all, Hux has only left his apartment once since he woke up on Saturday, to trudge up to campus and print some stuff because he can’t afford to buy his own printer.

He plans to just make dinner himself tonight, as he does more often than not, but when he opens the fridge he realizes that in all the kerfuffle of the weekend, he never did any meal-planning and never went grocery shopping for the week, so he doesn’t have anything to make. For budgeting reasons, he buys only what he needs week-to-week.

With a sigh, Hux resigns himself to a night in the school dining hall, so he throws on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, puts on his headphones (always vital for leaving his apartment), and starts off towards campus. 

He’s walking across the quad outside the dining hall when, out of the corner of his eye, he sees someone jogging in what seems to be his direction. It’s not Phasma, so Hux ignores them until the person has suddenly pulled up next to Hux, walking next to him.

“Hey, dude, I —”

And that’s enough for Hux to stop in his tracks, gritting his teeth from the warped sense of déjà vu. Ben stops too, and Hux cuts off whatever Ben was about to tell him. He doesn’t give a shit what Ben wants, and this time, Hux will make the right decision.

“I’m going to say what I should have said before. Simply: fuck off.” And he strides away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This is my first foray into multi-chapter fics, so bear with me...and please let me know if you want me to continue because if there isn't enough interest I might abandon it and I don't want to...
> 
>  
> 
> tumblr: [fuckhux](http://fuckhux.tumblr.com)


	2. Chapter 2

It only takes a second for Hux to realize he’s walking in the exact opposite direction than he needs to go, but he’s committed to it now.

“Hey, come on!” Ben’s voice is (unfortunately) still audible over Hux’s music. “Can we talk? Please, I want to apologize.”

Well, that is certainly the last thing Hux expected. He figured Ben was going to make some stupid crack about how he “had a good time”, or worse, proposition Hux again, with something _more_ this time. The surprise is enough to make Hux slow down, and in a second, Ben is walking alongside him.

Hux drapes his headphones around his neck, crossing his arms, and narrowing his eyes at Ben, who’s now doing some sort of strange sideways-hopping next to Hux, because apparently walking like a normal person isn’t enough for him.

“I’m really sorry about everything, I didn’t know it would become a thing, I just wanted to make that guy jealous, and hey, it worked!” Ben starts, a grin spreading across his face. “So there’s that! He doesn’t even go here anyway so it won’t be an issue and he was just, like, a fuckbuddy not a boyfriend or anything. And I looked for you after I was done talking to him but you were gone and I haven’t seen you since then, but I saw you just now and I was like shit! I gotta talk to him, I gotta apologize, and I wanted to also tell you that people were just interested because they all thought that we’re fucking or something and they didn’t know who you were but I cleared it all up so there shouldn’t be any more problems and also thank you so much, you don’t strike me as the kind of guy who just hooks up with random dudes so I really appreciate your helping me out.”

He finally takes a breath, allowing Hux to get a word in.

“Do you even know my name? You’ve only ever called me ‘dude’.”

No matter how earnest and silly Ben looks bouncing along next to Hux with his stupid smile, Hux is not someone who forgives quickly.

Ben’s smile somehow gets bigger, as he replies, “Yeah! We met at the beginning of freshman year, you probably don’t remember, but we had one class together even though we never spoke, and before that we met at orientation at that presentation on groups and resources for LGBT students, we talked briefly at the beginning but I had to leave really quick and I guess we don’t have any classes or mutual friends because we obviously haven’t talked since then but yeah! I know who you are.”

Hux is, to be honest, flabbergasted that Ben remembers him at all, and now that he thinks about it, of course that’s how Ben guessed he liked dudes. Somehow just knowing this bit more of information — that Hux wasn’t _completely_ some random dude to Ben — makes what happened a bit more okay to Hux. Not to mention that Ben does seem honest with his desire to apologize and explain everything to Hux. 

“Okay, so what’s my name?” Hux asks again, but he uncrosses his arms and he can feel the hint of a smile on his own face. 

Ben sucks his lower lip into his mouth and passes a hand through his long hair. “I’m, uh, a bit afraid to pronounce it, to be honest, but here goes: ‘Army-tag’?”

“Close. Armitage,” Hux replies, “but I go by Hux. My last name.”

“Cool, got it, that’s a cool name. Hux,” Ben says, trying it out. Then he hits Hux on the shoulder, grinning again. “Anyone ever call you Huxey?”

“No, and you will _not_.”

“Okay, okay, got it,” Ben says, throwing up his hands in mock-defense. “Hey, do you want to go get dinner? I’ll pay, I still feel like I owe you something.”

Hux stops walking and looks over at Ben. Considers everything. Marvels at the way his impressions of Ben have been completely turned upside down two different times in as many days. Except before, that’s all it was: impressions. And here he’s actually talking to Hux, and he seems fun and goofy and not at all like the egotistical dickbag Hux had been imagining since Saturday morning. So far, the only fault he’s seen in Ben is his tendency to talk in run-on sentences. Also, Hux is not one to turn down a free meal, especially if the alternative is the school dining hall. 

“You know, most people buy someone dinner _before_ making out with them,” Hux jokes, and Ben _literally_ claps his hands together, taking that as a “yes”. 

“Awesome! Where do you want to go? There’s that good Italian place a block away?” Ben suggests as they start walking again.

“No, no, I work there,” Hux says, “Let’s go somewhere downtown. If you’re paying, I’m going to get my money’s worth.”

Ben laughs aloud at that. “You’re a cool dude, Hux. I’ll call an Uber.”

Hux nods, and then sighs before saying, “And I forgive you for…” he waves a hand in the air, “all the crap. I did say yes, and we were both really drunk, so it’s fine. It’s all behind us now.”

“Does this mean I don’t have to bribe you with dinner for forgiveness?”

“No, asshole, you still have to.”

 

 

Hux ends up picking a sushi restaurant because that’s the most expensive food he can think of, and he can’t remember the last time he's had real sushi and not the sketchy packaged stuff from the university market. 

He can’t believe how easy it is to talk to Ben — it helps that Ben never seems to run out of things to say or questions to ask Hux — especially given how tongue-tied Hux knows he would have been three days ago in the same situation. They start off with the usual college-students-getting-to-know-each-other stuff: Ben is majoring in Political Science because his mom wants him to follow in her footsteps, Hux in English and History with a French minor (“Say something dirty in French.” “Absolutely not.” “Killjoy.”); Ben’s extracurriculars consist of frat parties, working out, and not much else, while Hux works on the university literary magazine, but between his school workload and his job he doesn’t have time for anything else (“Do you ever have fun??” “I mean, most of my schoolwork is enjoyable…” “What the fuck.”); they’re both sophomores, and their apartment buildings are in the same block. 

Ben finds it very interesting that Hux grew up in England, and asks a lot about his upbringing; Hux doesn’t answer many of the more probing questions. Ben can’t believe that Hux only goes home once during the school year, during winter break (since it’s too far to go for spring or Thanksgiving break, and he obviously does’t celebrate Thanksgiving anyway), but Hux explains that he’s attended boarding school since he was eight years old, and is very used to being away from home. Conversely, Ben is able to go home often, since his family lives in Connecticut and their school is in Massachusetts (“I’m from New England and you’re from England so it’s _basically_ the same…” “No, Ben, it’s really, really not.”)

Their families couldn’t be more different — as Phasma had said, Ben’s parents are loaded, and Ben shares that they’re happily married (though Ben thinks that’s mostly a result of their respective careers both requiring a lot of travel), and he has a younger sister, who his parents adopted out of foster care, that he obviously really cares about. On the completely other side, Hux’s father won’t give him a dime for anything other than necessary school expenses (at least he values education — he wouldn’t let himself be associated with a son that wasn’t highly educated), he’s never met his mother, and he spent his boarding school years being bullied (it would have been bad enough if he was _either_ a bastard or a ginger, but no, he _had_ to be both). However, he doesn’t tell Ben most of this, just that he was raised by his father and works for his money. He’s a bit apprehensive of Ben’s reaction to this, but surprisingly Ben just raises his eyebrows and says, “I wish I had a work ethic like you. My parents are always on me about that.”

 

It’s only after they’re leaving the restaurant, both happily full, with Ben laughing at something Hux just said, that Hux realizes that he hadn’t even considered that he’s wearing unflattering, wrinkled clothes or that his hair’s a mess and he hasn’t shaved in two days — his crush on Ben must really be gone. Hux couldn’t be happier about that, since they actually get along really well, and Ben would never ever have feelings for someone like Hux (and even if he did, it doesn’t seem like he’d even know how to have a relationship). Although, to be honest, Hux can’t see himself becoming good friends with Ben; they’re too different. Hux is understated and quiet and prefers to spend his scant free time at home with a book or the TV, and Ben is all noise and energy and partying. But, hey, at least Hux got a free dinner out of all this, even if this is the end of his friendship with Ben Solo.

***

**Sunday, October 14**

At 7:30pm, Hux has just finished the dishes from his dinner of reheated yesterday’s leftovers and is planning to spend the evening as usual, under the blanket on his couch with a bottle of $8 wine and a book, when someone knocks on his door.

Hux turns and squints at the door, as if that will suddenly give him the ability to see through it. He figures it’s Phasma, since she texted him earlier asking if he was going out tonight (to which he replied a definitive no), but she didn’t indicate she was coming over, so Hux is a bit confused.

And that confusion escalates considerably when he opens the door and sees not Phasma, but Ben Solo, with a big grin and a pizza box.

“What the fuck are you—” Hux tries to say, but he trails off as Ben marches into the apartment, setting the pizza and a wine bottle Hux hadn’t noticed on the counter, before turning and rummaging through the cupboards as Hux stands frozen in the doorway. 

“I remembered last week at dinner you said you like history and military documentaries,” Ben says, taking out a couple of Hux’s plates and two glasses, “but you don’t really watch many since you don’t have Netflix or anything and of course movie stores are obsolete, and you seem like the kind of guy who’s totally against pirating movies,” Ben continues as he puts a couple slices of mushroom-and-olive pizza (Hux’s favorite) on the plates, “and your friend Phasma said you’re staying in tonight so I thought I’d bring some food and we can watch one of your documentaries since my family has Netflix, I’ll just sign in on your laptop and you can have a profile, nobody will care since we have a bunch on there already.” He uncorks the wine as he finishes, pouring each of them a generous glass and gesturing at Hux to come into the kitchen.

Hux realizes he’s been gaping like a fish the entire time, so he snaps his mouth closed and forces himself to walk over to the counter, taking the plate and glass that Ben holds out. He can tell that it’s pizza from the good (read: expensive as fuck) place downtown, and Hux barely has to glance at the wine bottle and he can tell it is _nice_. 

“We have to get—”

“Towels, yeah got it,” Ben cuts him off, pulling a couple out of Hux’s drawer before heading into the living room.

“Okay, what the fuck,” Hux whispers to himself. But he follows Ben to the couch.

Once they're settled in and Ben’s got Hux’s new Netflix profile figured out (he was right: his family Netflix account has profiles for “Leia”, “Han”, “Ben”, “Drunk Ben”, “Rey”, and “Finn”), and Hux has selected the first documentary, Hux finally asks why Ben’s at his apartment in the first place. Ben shrugs noncommittally in response.

“I had a good time hanging out with you last Sunday, and I still feel a bit bad about what happened. And, no offense, you seem like you could use more human interaction, which I figure you won’t get unless it literally shows up at your door, so, here I am.”

“Thats…” Hux tries, but to be honest, he doesn’t really know what to say to that. He’s not used to anyone just wanting to spend time with him, certainly not someone like Ben, who probably has a whole horde of people he could be hanging out with, and doing something much more up his alley than sitting in with pizza and a documentary.

But again, it’s free dinner, and there’s no apparent reason Hux should turn any of this down. So he does something he’s really not used to doing — he just lets it happen.

While they watch, Hux mostly expects that Ben will continue his pattern of talkativeness and energy, will talk over the documentary, or get on Hux’s nerves. But once again his expectations prove untrue, as Ben is actually mostly quiet and respectful. It’s almost like Hux just has the evening to himself, although he must admit it’s a bit nice having another person there, even just as a presence. 

Several hours later, the pizza box and two bottles of wine are are empty, Hux is feeling a bit giggly, and Ben has so far teased Hux seven times about how into the documentaries he is. 

“It’s — shut up — it’s really interesting stuff!” Hux protests after the eighth comment.

“The Cold War wasn’t even a _war_ Hux, what kind of shit is that!?” Ben jokingly yells. “When you said ‘military’, I was like ‘oh cool at least there’ll be some fighting’! Not some crusty old guys being passive-aggressive and then nothing ever happening from it!”

Hux rolls his eyes, pausing the documentary, grasping at an explanation. “It’s…it’s…wait, I thought you were studying _political science_ Ben?”

“Yeah, so?’

“I don’t…I don’t really understand you.”

Ben laughs, lacing his hands together behind his head and leaning back on the couch cushions. “Don’t worry, I don’t either. And I mean, I only go to class two-thirds of the time, in a good week. As I said, terrible work ethic.” He pauses, his tone changing very suddenly from joking to serious. “I just don’t….I don’t know. I guess I never developed good study habits and I especially suck at writing any sort of anything, so that really doesn’t help. I’m not very academically-inclined.” 

Hux rests his chin in his hand and looks over at Ben, considering him for a moment, chewing on his lower lip.

“I could help you, if you want. I’ve always done well in school. I could help you form better habits, and I happen to love writing, so I could help you with that. Process, editing, whatever you want. If you want.”

“Really?” Ben looks more surprised at that than Hux would have thought, but he also looks really grateful. It occurs to Hux that the kind of people Ben probably spends time with probably aren’t really the academic type either, and it doesn’t seem like he has anyone here really encouraging him to try and do well. 

“Yeah, it’s not a problem for me,” Hux replies, shrugging.

Ben smiles hugely. “Thanks, dude. I, uh, can pay you if you want, for your time, for, like, tutoring.”  
“No, that’s…that’s really not necessary,” Hux says, a bit surprised, “You’re not exactly difficult to spend time with.” Which is the truth, strange as it may be.

“Can I tell you something?” Ben asks, dropping his head onto his shoulder so he’s looking up at Hux with his huge, adorable eyes. 

Hux bites back a smile (because even if he doesn’t have a crush anymore, Ben is still really easy on the eyes), and nods.

“I’ve not really had a friend like you before.”

 _We’re friends?_ Hux wants to say, but he thinks that could come off as a little mean, so instead he simply says, “In what way?”

Ben sighs, letting his hands fall to his sides. One falls between his leg and Hux’s; as he waits for Ben to reply, Hux marvels at how much bigger Ben’s hand is than his own.

“I guess…I dunno. I guess I don’t really _talk_ to my friends, like we’re always just out to have a good time, doing stuff because it sounds fun, stupid shit, I dunno. You’re the first person I’ve met here that has asked me anything about myself and then actually listened to what I said. They’re always loud and loose, and you’re a lot more low-key but you also have a bite that’s sort of refreshing. And I’m sorry if this is weird or something because I know we haven’t really known each other that long, but yeah. I’ve not really had a friend like you before.”

Hux nods slowly, absorbing. 

“I’ve not really had a friend like you either.” Not that Hux has really had many friends, but Ben doesn’t need to know that. 

“I figured.” Ben laughs briefly but then turns to look at Hux, sucking his lower lip into his mouth. “I’m sorry if this is too fast or something, but I, uh, I think I really…” Ben pauses, screws his eyes together, sighs. “I think we could be good friends.”

Hux smiles down at Ben, though his brain is still trying to wrap around everything that’s happened. 

“Yeah.”

“You’re not exactly, um, long-winded. Get right to the point,” Ben jokes, suddenly sitting straight up. “Want to crack open another bottle? Toast to our new friendship?”

Hux rolls his eyes in the most exaggerated way he can manage, and slaps Ben on the shoulder.

“I have class tomorrow morning, and unlike _some people_ , I actually attend mine. Besides,” he says, mockingly raising his eyebrows, “I’ve learned my lesson on getting drunk around you. Never again!”

Ben’s face splits into another grin and he laughs out loud, the sound echoing around Hux’s apartment.

“I’ll take that as my cue to leave,” he says, standing up with a grunt, picking up his plate and glass to take into the kitchen. 

Hux follows, and they make quick work of the dishes. Before Ben leaves, he insists upon putting Hux’s number into his phone (“I feel like you could just disappear off the face of the planet, and I couldn’t find you on any social media, so I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen!”). 

Opening the door for Ben, Hux says a final, “I’ll see you around.”

Ben throws one last grin over his shoulder, gives Hux a salute, and ambles off down the hall.

“Well,” Hux says to himself after shutting the door, “ _That_ happened.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! I wrote this really fast today instead of doing my own schoolwork, so apologies if there are any typos/awkward sentences (please let me know if there are), and please let me know what you think!
> 
> Next chapter will start on the actual fake relationship part of this fake relationship fic, I promise!
> 
> tumblr: [fuckhux ](http://fuckhux.tumblr.com)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> consistent chapter length?? what's that??
> 
> beta read by my friend george who has neither ao3 nor tumblr

**Mid-October through mid-November**

After that night, it’s effortless for Hux to fall into a pattern with Ben.

He starts showing up at Hux’s apartment whenever it seems to strike his fancy, often armed with a meal, and if not, then take-out is on its way. Hux is always around when Ben comes over, even though Ben never checks in ahead of time (Hux sometimes wonders if there are ever times when Ben comes over and Hux is gone, though if there are, Ben never mentions it). Ben is strangely adept at reading Hux’s moods: just based on how Hux greets him at the door, Ben knows whether it will be a casual-hanging-out visit, a studying visit, or a silently-doing-their-own-activities sort of visit. 

The most common type is a studying visit, since they both always have a lot of work to do, and Hux won’t do anything until he's finished his work. 

 

_The first time Hux helps Ben with his coursework, it is, to be honest, a nightmare. It’s for a 100-level English course (much to Ben’s annoyance, it’s a university requirement to take at least one English course); Ben is writing an essay on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”. After a few minutes of discussing the prompt and Hux glancing over what Ben’s written so far, Hux notices that it doesn’t seem as though Ben has even read the story._

_“I tried but it was confusing and there were too many adjectives, and his sentences were really confusing, why can’t he just get to the point,” Ben explains, kicking his feet up onto Hux’s coffee table._

_Hux glowers at him from where he’s tucked up on the other end of the couch, until Ben (sighing) pulls off his dirty boots and settles back down._

_“You have to read the actual story you’re writing about, Ben, and it’s a good story, too. Someone gets buried alive, I feel like you’d like that. And besides, Poe was an amazing author and poet, his use of—”_

_“Okay, I’m going to stop you right there,” Ben says quickly, holding up a hand, “Yes, being buried alive is intriguing. No, I really don’t need a dissertation on Poe, I just want to get a passing grade on this essay.”_

_“Sorry, that’s fair,” Hux replies, sliding Ben’s laptop back across the couch towards him. “Why don’t you read the story now, if you get stuck anywhere just ask, I’ve read it. It’s mostly descriptions of the setting and of Usher, he’s creepy and arguably insane so that’s fun, and there’s not a lot of plot to get bogged down in.”_

_Ben lets out a long, extremely exaggerated groan, falling over onto his side so his head is resting next to Hux’s lap._

_“Can you read it to me instead? I think I’ll understand it better that way, and I’ll focus more on it if its coming from you. Please?” Ben asks, putting out a pouty face that Hux figures was probably more effective when he was a child, and not a six-foot-three, muscular nineteen-year-old._

_Regardless, Hux picks up the story, sighing and clearing his throat. “‘During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the—”_

_“That’s how I feel right now.”_

_“Shut up. I’m doing this as a favor to_ you _.”_

_Ten days and several visits from Ben later, on a Wednesday night, Ben doesn’t even bother knocking before barging into Hux’s apartment, yelling his name._

_“What the FUCK!” Hux screams from the bathroom, slipping and almost falling on the wet tiles, struggling to wrap a towel around himself just before Ben busts into there, too. “You can’t just…I was in the shower! What the fuck are you doing? My front door was locked, how did you even get in here…” he trails off when he sees the expression on Ben’s face, which can only be described as elation mixed with pride, and something else Hux can’t quite pinpoint, but this much is clear: Ben is bursting to tell Hux something._

_“Stole your spare key a few days ago,” Ben says nonchalantly, holding up a little silver key, “But look,” he adds, thrusting a packet of paper into Hux’s hands._

_Hux accepts it with one hand, the other clutching his towel, and immediately recognizes it as the essay he helped Ben with a couple weeks ago. It just then dawns on him what’s happening; Hux quickly flips to the last page to see the large “B+” scrawled in blue ink under a paragraph of comments from the professor._

_Hux’s eyes widen considerably; his mouth drops open._

_“Ben, that’s…”_

_“I’ve never gotten above a C+ on a paper in my life Hux! I’m just…you’re…”_

_For the first time in the (albeit limited) time Hux has known Ben, this is the first time he’s seen him at a loss for words._

_“You deserve it,” Hux says sincerely, smiling up at Ben and handing the paper back. “Once you actually really focused on it, you did a good job.”_

_Ben lunges at Hux suddenly, trying to hug him, but Hux expertly dodges him, grasping his towel a little tighter._

_“I’ve gotta dry off…” he explains, as Ben’s eyebrows twitch upwards in confusion. “But you should stay for dinner, I have some stew in the Crockpot.”_

_“Okay, Huxey, you’re the best. Thank you!” Ben_ literally _skips out of the bathroom. Hux can’t even find it in himself to be annoyed at the nickname._

 

Another pattern Hux notices over the month-or-so he knows Ben: whenever Ben needs to ask a favor of Hux, he brings him some sort of gift. Nothing too fancy: a bag of Jellybeans when he’s struggling on a microeconomics assignment (Hux doesn’t even bother to ask how Ben knows Jellybeans are his favorite candy); a little potted succulent when he wants to look at Hux’s notes from a World History course Hux took last semester; different-colored, tiny pear-shaped candles each of three times he asks Hux to quiz him before a midterm exam.

Sometimes, Ben doesn’t bring anything over to Hux’s apartment, instead forcing Hux to go out for the evening with him. Again, always low-key: seeing a movie, going out to a casual dinner, window-shopping downtown, brunch one lazy Sunday morning. Ben never overtly insists on paying for everything, but he somehow manages to always snag the check, or get his credit card out faster than Hux can. Hux tries to protest, or pay him back, every time, but Ben just dismisses him, usually with a comment about “Compensation for you putting up with me all the time,” or “It’s my parents’ money anyway.”

So when Ben shows up at Hux’s doorstep one evening, with a new (hardcover!) novel Hux has been wanting to read, two bottles of his favorite red wine, a box of the good English Breakfast tea, and an expression that says “Please forgive me”, Hux wonders what the fuck Ben could want from him now.

 

***

**Thursday, November 15**

 

“Just…just explain it to me again. I don’t understand, Ben, I just really don’t.”

Ben spreads his fingers to peer out sheepishly at Hux, who’s standing above him, arms crossed, and a frightening mixture of shock and anger on his face. 

“So. Um. My mom bought you a plane ticket to Connecticut. For Saturday morning. With me. Because she thinks you’re my boyfriend. Is that clear enough?”

Hux takes a labored breath in, sitting carefully on his couch next to Ben, pinching the bridge of his nose. The plates of pasta Hux had made for them lay abandoned on the coffee table ever since Ben’s admission.

“Please explain something to me: how the fuck could that accidentally happen? Why the hell does your mom think we’re dating?”

“Okay, so remember how I told you that nobody would notice or care if you had a Netflix profile on our account? So it turns out my little sister did notice and does care because she told Mom and somehow convinced her that you must be on there because you’re my boyfriend because somehow she managed to see those pictures of us from the party and this all apparently happened like way back when we first became friends so it’s been festering for a while in Mom’s head and she was probably imagining all this stuff about us that she convinced herself was real.” Ben leans back, pulling his feet onto the couch and hugging his knees. “And then about a week ago she called me and asked me about it and she sounded _so happy_ at the prospect of me having a boyfriend since I never have before right? And she was all ‘Ohhh, Benny, that’s so wonderful, I’m so proud of you that you’re finally trying out commitment’ and all this stuff and then put it together that you’re probably the reason that I’ve stopped partying as much and why my grades have gone up so much in such a short time which yes you are but regardless she basically already loves you and she even seemed sort of proud of me which has never happened before so I didn’t correct her because it didn’t seem like there would be any consequences.” He glances over to gauge Hux’s reaction, but Hux is stone-faced. “I never thought you’d meet her and then she was asking me all this stuff about you and I guess at one point I mentioned how since you’re British you don’t go home for Thanksgiving and then the next day she emailed me your flight confirmation all like ‘Surprise!’ and so we leave Saturday at 10:05.”

Hux presses his palms together in front of his face, closes his eyes, takes a long, deep breath. Mind absolutely reeling, he tries to sort through the behemoth of information Ben just presented. 

“And you are just now telling me this, a day and a half before we’re scheduled to leave, _why, exactly?_ ” Hux manages, trying to give himself longer to formulate an actual response. He’s more angry at the extremely short notice than anything else, because it won’t give him any time to prepare.

“To be honest, Hux,” Ben starts, glancing over at him apprehensively, “I was a bit scared of your reaction. You’re handling it much better than I expected.”

“That’s because I…I’m not going Ben. I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. You should have just said we’re friends. I’m not going to pretend anything else,” Hux says softly, picking up his glass of water and taking a drink, in order to occupy himself. 

Ben’s face falls, his shoulders slump visibly. 

“But, Hux…my mom and…”

Hux has never seen Ben look so defeated, so small. And it just then strikes Hux how much Ben’s done for him over the past month. Besides (technically) being Hux’s first kiss, he’s also shown Hux nothing but the utmost kindness, giving Hux a friendship that he never knew he’d have (and never thought he deserved), not to mention the literal things he’s given Hux and all the money he’s spent on him. 

He feels terrible for not realizing this before, not appreciating Ben’s presence like he should have. Hux can surely do this _one thing_ for Ben; it’s only a week, after all, how bad could it be?

So he tells Ben this — not all of it, not yet — but that he’ll go. 

Ben’s expression makes it immediately worth it, and this time Hux allows Ben to hug him. Briefly. 

 

***

**Saturday, November 17**

 

Hux calls Ben’s phone for the first time ever at 7:47am the day they’re supposed to leave. He’s pacing the length of his living room, neatly packed bag sitting by the door, mentally cursing Ben, because they were supposed to get a cab to the airport at 7:30, and Ben is nowhere to be seen. If Hux actually knew where he lived (he knows the building but not the number), he’d have been knocking on his door seven minutes ago, but he’s forced to just call him. And of course, Ben doesn’t pick up. 

On Hux’s third try, Ben finally answers the phone with a casual, “Yeah?” His voice is very clearly thick with sleep.

“Ben, where the fuck are you? We were supposed to leave twenty minutes ago,” Hux asks, pissed off, still pacing the length of his apartment.

“Oh, yeah, hmmm.” There’s a flurry of noise and shuffling from the other end. “Yeah, I’ll be there in like…three minutes.” 

“I’m doing this for _your sake_ ,” Hux practically hisses, “I would _really_ be fine staying here, if it matters this little to you.”

“No, no, dude, you have to go,” Ben says hurriedly, over the sound of him zipping something. “I’m sorry, I’m really not a morning person. Two minutes.”

“It takes that long for you to get up the stairs in my build—" Hux starts, but is cut off by the dial tone, as Ben apparently hangs up on him. 

Hux sighs, sitting on the couch armrest, wringing his hands. Truthfully, he’s much more nervous than actually mad at Ben, but there’s no way he’ll tell Ben that — he always seems to regard Hux as so in-control of everything, which Hux loves, so he won’t jeopardize that. Ben has barely told Hux anything about his family or what they're expecting of Hux, and more importantly, given that Hux has never been anyone’s boyfriend, he has absolutely _no idea_ how he’s supposed to fake it. Not to mention, he hates the vast majority of personal contact. Sure, he figures if it was someone he actually cared about he’d be comfortable with their touching him or getting in his personal space, but Ben? No way. And that’s what he’s fucking signed himself up for here. 

The front door bangs open as Hux is wallowing; he jerks up in shock but it’s just Ben, smiling widely at Hux and breathing hard. His face is flushed, hair half-pulled up into a tangled bun, and his socks don’t match, but he has a packed duffel bag over one shoulder and looks overall ready to go. 

“Told you I could make it! I even called an Uber on the way!” he says gleefully, bending to grab Hux’s small suitcase as Hux checks his phone. Sure enough, it’s exactly two minutes since they hung up. 

With an exasperated sigh, Hux double checks that he has his wallet, phone, and keys before following Ben out. 

 

They miraculously make it to the gate with twenty minutes to spare before boarding, and Hux decides to get them drinks from the Starbucks nearby (Hux, black with one sugar; Ben, a cinnamon roll frappuccino with extra whipped cream), more as an excuse to collect himself for a moment, alone, before they actually leave. He comforts himself with the thought that supposedly, they’ve only been dating since the beginning of October, so nobody would expect them to be super affectionate with each other at this point. Hux plans to just act the way he normally does, maybe just sit or stand a bit closer than usual. 

_It’s only a week. It’s fine_ , he tells himself as he heads back over to the gate with his coffee and Ben’s monstrosity. When Ben takes it, he shoves a $10 bill into Hux’s hand (“Reimbursement!”), completely ignoring Hux as he tries to shove it back at him. 

Hux finally gives up, set his coffee on the end-table next to his chair, and pulls out his book, the one Ben bought him, as Ben pulls out an iPad and starts watching an episode of Brooklyn 99.

They sit in comfortable silence for a while, broken only by Ben’s occasional snickering at his show, until out of nowhere, Ben grabs Hux’s free hand and laces their fingers together. 

“What the FUCK!” Hux exclaims, jerking away and almost knocking coffee onto his lap. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees several of the people sitting around them glance up in curiosity; one woman with a small child glares at Hux.

Ben immediately blushes, his ears reddening considerably. He leans towards Hux and says in a low voice, “You’re supposed to be my boyfriend, Hux, we gotta, like…do that kind of stuff.”

“Nobody in the _airport_ needs to think that,” Hux replies, leaning away slightly, “And I don’t like holding hands anyway. Just…we can still pretend to date without having any contact.”

Ben rolls his eyes at that. “What do you mean you ‘don’t like holding hands’? Who doesn’t like that?” And then it dawns on Ben; his lips pull into a teasing smile and he nudges Hux’s shoulder. “You never have before, have you?”

It’s Hux’s turn to blush, but he keeps himself absolutely still otherwise, not giving away any emotions.

“Shut up.”

“You _haven’t_! Awww, Huxey, why not?” Ben says, prodding at Hux, who is pointedly ignoring him. 

“Shut _up_ Ben,” Hux hisses. He’s never told Ben about the depressing lack of romance in his life, and he’s not about to right now.

“Why not?” Ben asks again, snatching Hux’s book and holding it away from him, forcing Hux to pay attention to him.

“Shut up, Ben, I’m serious,” Hux sighs, trying to hide his continued blushing, stretching out for his book but failing miserably, since Ben’s arms are considerably longer than his. “I just haven’t. 

“But you _have_ dated people before, right?” The look on Hux’s face is enough for Ben. “Oh wow, oh Huxey, does that mean I’m your first boyfriend?”

“Do not call me that,” Hux snaps, “And you’re not my boyfriend.” Despite how attuned to Hux, especially his emotions, Ben usually is, he seems to not understand at all that Hux _really_ doesn’t want to have this conversation. 

“Once we get to Connecticut, you can’t say stuff like that,” Ben replies, thankfully focusing on Hux’s last comment and dropping the other subject. “You know what? From this moment onwards I’m declaring that we’ve begun, we’re dating, and you can’t say jack shit about it.”

Ben sits back in his seat with a little smile. Hux wants _so badly_ to be mad at him, but for some reason can’t find it within himself. 

“Okay, but I’m still not holding your hand,” Hux says with a little laugh. 

At that moment, the overhead speaker announces that the flight is going to start boarding, so they stand up, grabbing their bags, and move to stand in line for the door. 

 

Once they’re settled into their seats, Hux in the window and Ben in the aisle (Ben casually explains that his parents bought the middle seat as well, so they’d have more room. Hux just gapes at him.), Hux pulls out his book again, intending to read for the entire flight, savoring the kind of quiet time he’s not sure he’ll have at all in the coming week. 

“So, I’ve been thinking…” Ben muses, before the plane’s even reached cruising altitude. 

Suppressing a sigh, Hux pulls out his headphones, closes his book, and looks over at Ben. “That’s always dangerous,” he deadpans.

Ben lets out a snort of laughter before continuing, “I think it would be weird if I called you Hux, since you’re my boyfriend and that’s your last name.”

“I’m not—” Hux starts, but cuts off when Ben narrows his eyes. “I mean, that’s what everyone calls me. Except Phasma but she’s different. It’s not weird.”

“It is _too_ weird,” Ben protests, “You just wouldn’t know, given—”

“If you say another word,” Hux raises his eyebrows in warning and holds up a finger, “I swear, I will break up with you right now.”

Ben laughs, reaching out to gently push Hux’s hand down onto the seat between them. “I see you’re getting into the spirit of this, but I’m still gonna call you Armitage, though, when we’re around anyone else, because I want to and you can’t stop me.”

“Okay,” Hux concedes, “but if you think for one second that you can get away with calling me anything other than ‘Hux’ or ‘Armitage’, especially any of those horrendous ‘pet names’ people use nowadays, then you are sorely mistaken. And I will break up with you.”

“Jeez, Hux, okay, lighten up,” Ben says, still smiling. 

Hux realizes then that his hand, resting on the seat, is still underneath Ben’s; he carefully extracts it before turning back to his book. 

 

The rest of the flight is smooth; Ben respects Hux’s unspoken desire for quiet reading time, so when they step off the plane, Hux feels refreshed and just a bit more ready to start this week. Ben insists on pulling Hux’s suitcase as they walk towards the front of the airport (“You’re so skinny, Hux, the stress could snap your arm!” “What the fuck, Ben…”). 

They’ve just stepped out the door next to the street when they turn simultaneously towards the sound of someone yelling, “Benny!” 

“Hey, Mom,” Ben says when they reach the correct car, dropping the bags and pulling his mom into a hug, practically enveloping her. She spends a minute fawning over Ben, saying how much she missed him, how good he looks, and chastising him for letting his hair get so long. Then she turns suddenly on Hux, who gives her an awkward half-wave. 

“You must be Armie!” she says happily, taking a couple steps towards him. _Armie?!_

“Yes, you must be Ms. Organa,” Hux says, putting on his best “meeting adults” posture and holding out a hand. Ben’s mom immediately dodges that, instead pulling Hux into a hug. He goes stiff, eyes wide, unsure how to react. 

“Mom, stop,” Ben sighs, trying to pull her off him (thankfully), but his eyes sparkle in a way that tells Hux he finds it hilarious. “He’s not big on hugs or anything like that.” 

“It’s so nice to finally meet you! Ben’s told me so much,” Leia says, letting Hux go and smiling in a way that immediately reminds Hux of Ben. “Well, we should get going, I know Rey’s eager to meet you, too,” she says, turning back towards the car. 

Ben swiftly tosses their suitcases into the trunk and holds open the back door for Hux, gesturing for him to get in with an over-exaggerated sweeping of his arm. 

Climbing into the car, Hux bites back a snarky comment, remembering that he can’t make those for the time being. Ben sits up in the passenger seat, citing the necessity for him to control the radio. Hux doesn’t at all mind having the backseat to himself. 

While they drive back to the Organa-Solo house, Leia alternates between Ben and Hux, asking questions about their semesters, which are easy for Hux to answer; he never has any issue talking about his academics. She often mentions how well Ben is doing, telling Hux that he has never before voluntarily told her his grades on anything, and now he’s happily sending along his results on assignments. 

“I don’t know if you realize how much of a good influence you’ve been on him,” she says to Hux at one point, “I could never motivate him to do his work, I don’t know how you do it.” Then she turns to Ben with a grin and a gleam in her eye. “Well, maybe I can think of one way…”

“Mom, ugh, please,” Ben groans, shoving his face into his hands. It takes a moment for Hux to realize what she was insinuating; he’s very glad they can’t see his face reddening.

“Well, Ben, it’s not exactly like you’re some blushing virgin,” Leia replies snarkily, “You had _quite_ the reputation in high school, bringing home a different guy every week, I don’t know _where_ you found them all, and I’m sure it only got worse in college.”

“Mom! What? Stop!” Ben exclaims, face still in his hands. “We really don’t need to talk about this right now, Armitage is literally two feet away.”

“I would be floored if he doesn’t know your reputation,” his mom retorts, but her tone softens as she says, “I only meant to say that I’m glad you’re not doing that anymore, that you actually have commitment for once. It’s about time.”

“I’m only nineteen!” Ben protests, “And besides, that’s what you’re supposed to do in college!”

“I was nineteen when I met your father,” Leia replies, “And it’s not okay for you to say stuff like that in front of your boyfriend. Come on, Ben.”

“You already said how much of a slut I am, so I don’t think anything else could really hurt at this point!”

“Ben, you don’t say how much you like sleeping around in front of your boyfriend, no matter what.”

Hux tries to flatten himself against the seat and disappear as they continue bickering; although, if he actually was Ben’s boyfriend, he would feel a _lot_ more awkward. 

He is extremely relieved when they pull into a driveway and Leia shuts off the car. 

“I’m so sorry you had to listen to that, honey,” she says to Hux as they walk up the front path towards the door. “That’s always just been a point of contention between Ben and me, I promise it won’t happen again.”

“It’s really okay,” Hux says, truthfully. “You were right, I do know his reputation, so it’s not news to me. And to be honest, it doesn’t really matter what he did before, as long as he’s stopped.”

For the first time, the thought occurs to Hux: since they’ve been friends, how many times has Ben fucked some random dude? It shouldn’t bother Hux, it didn’t even really bother him back when he had a crush on Ben, but for some reason there’s a strange twinge in Hux’s gut at the thought. 

Shaking the feeling off, Hux follows Ben and his mom into the house, which — Hux is just now noticing— is enormous. They're in a spacious entry way, with a double staircase curling up in front of them; through the picture windows behind it, he can see a glimpse of a sprawling lawn; hallways stretch off to the left and right; the ceiling must be at least fifteen feet high. It’s by far the biggest home he’s ever been in. 

“Benny, show Armitage his room, then we can eat, I made lunch,” Leia says before walking off to the left.

Moving toward the staircase, Ben jerks his head at Hux to follow him, but Hux is frozen in place, still taking in the house. 

“Oh come on, it can’t be that much of a surprise,” Ben says, rolling his eyes and walking back to literally shove at Hux’s back to get him moving.

“I am…I will never feel bad about taking your money again,” Hux says, laughing and following Ben up the stairs.

Ben leads Hux to his room, putting his suitcase in a corner. 

“I’ll let you get unpacked, you seem like one of those people who unpacks the second they get somewhere, like putting all their clothes away in drawers and shit no matter how short the stay is,” Ben says, backing into the doorway. “My room’s just down the hall, but I’ll meet you downstairs.” He salutes Hux before quietly shutting the door behind him. 

Ben is absolutely right, Hux is one of those people, and he sets to work sorting all of his clothes into drawers. He severely overpacked — due to nerves — since he wanted to be prepared for every possible situation, so it takes him about ten minutes to get totally unpacked. Ben didn’t tell him where the bathroom is, not that Hux is really surprised, so he leaves his toiletry kits on the bed, straightens his hair and shirt, and heads downstairs to meet the rest of Ben’s family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! i really hope you like where this is going?? 
> 
> tumblr: [fuckhux ](http://fuckhux.tumblr.com)


	4. Chapter 4

The lunch goes fairly smoothly, in Hux’s opinion. Ben’s family hasn’t seen him since August, so a lot of their attention is focused on him, thereby keeping it away from Hux. It helps that when Ben introduces him to his father and sister, Rey, he mentions that Hux is fairly quiet, and asks them “not to overwhelm him,”, which Hux is quite grateful for. 

It’s not until after they’re done eating, and Hux has finished helping Leia with the dishes (to which she half-jokingly says she can’t believe someone as polite as Hux would ever want to date her son), that Ben and Hux run into some trouble. 

They’re sitting on a couch in the backyard, on the patio overlooking a beautiful lawn. It’s a clear, beautiful day, unseasonably warm, filled with the sounds of birds and what sounds like a creek running somewhere out of sight. Across from Hux and Ben is Rey, who’s been filling Ben in on everything that’s happened in her life since he’s been gone, but that she doesn’t want their parents to hear. Ben’s told him quite a bit about Rey in the time they’ve known each other, about how brilliant she is, her firecracker personality, and how she could probably beat Ben in a fight (and could absolutely beat Hux). Hux thinks it’s so sweet how close the siblings are, how they apparently tell each other everything. Rey’s just finished describing the details of her crush on a boy in her class — to which Ben is genuinely, adorably interested in hearing about — when she decides to change the subject to their relationship. 

“How did you guys get together?” she asks, with a huge grin, before turning to Hux to explain, “Ben’s told us a lot about you, but nothing about your actual relationship.”

It’s just then that Hux realizes that, because there was such a quick turnaround between deciding to do this and actually leaving, he and Ben never actually squared away any of the details of their fake relationship. Which he completely blames Ben for.

“Uh, we originally met at the beginning of last year, actually,” Hux says vaguely, turning to Ben with a smile, though his eyes are shooting daggers. It’s his problem to improvise this. Fortunately, it’s a fairly easy question to make up an answer for.

Ben luckily gets the memo, sticking with a version of the truth as he tells Rey, “We, uh, reconnected at a party in October, the one you saw the photos from, we just started talking I guess and then Armitage just couldn’t resist me, you know how I am, and, uh, now here we are!”

He nudges Hux playfully in the shoulder as he says the last bit. It’s so weird for Hux to hear Ben refer to him using his first name. 

“That’s actually not quite true,” Hux says with a smile, suddenly realizing he can have some fun with this. As long as they’re based on the truth, the lies shouldn’t be too hard to keep straight. 

Rey’s eyes snap over to Hux eagerly, clearly intrigued; Ben looks over at Hux too, but his mouth is tight with concern, having no idea what Hux is about to tell her.

“Ben likes to pretend that he’s so irresistible, but he actually had to ask me out three times before I said yes,” Hux elaborates, grinning at the way Ben’s hands clench slightly, knowing he can’t contradict Hux. 

“Oh, that’s so sweet!” Rey says, laughing. “No wonder you didn’t tell us, Benny, you actually found a guy who wasn’t immediately interested in you, that must have been _such_ a blow to your ego.” 

“Yeah, okay…” Ben grumbles, rolling his eyes. He glances over at Hux, grinning, and says, “I’m glad I was so persistent though, ‘cause he’s worth it.” 

For a brief moment Hux forgets how to breathe, clearly not used to Ben treating him like this yet. It’s a very unfamiliar feeling, having someone say they’re attracted to him, even if it’s the result of an act, and it gives him a strange twinge in his gut — worsened when Ben lays a soft hand on Hux’s leg. 

Resisting the urge to pull his leg away, and knowing he has to reply to that somehow, Hux simply says, “I’m glad you were too.” He pretends he’s just talking about their friendship, because Ben _was_ extremely persistent with that. It’s probably what Ben’s thinking about too.

Rey continues to ask them various questions; Hux leaves most of the answering up to Ben, unless he can say something that’ll annoy Ben. thankfully, since Rey is not quite sixteen and she doesn’t know Hux that well, she doesn’t ask anything about their sex life. And the conversation soon turns off the subject of them; since they’ve only been “together” for a bit over a month, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about. 

Eventually Ben’s dad comes out to join them, which sends a small shiver of fear down Hux’s spine. He wasn’t really able to gauge his feelings towards Hux during lunch, since he was pretty gruff and quiet, so when Mr. Solo sits on the chair nearest to Hux’s side of the couch, Hux is slightly petrified. 

_Should I call him ‘sir’?_ Hux thinks nervously as Mr. Solo settles down. Ben is deep in conversation with his sister, and absolutely no help right now. _Do dads still get called sir? Or is that only my father?_

“Uh, Armitage, right?” he asks Hux, leaning forward slightly. 

Hux swallows, lacing his fingers together tightly in his lap. “Yes.”

“You’re, uh, from England, right?” Mr. Solo asks, an eyebrow slightly raised.

“Yes, sir, um, just outside London,” Hux replies, trying not to let his fear show.

“Sir?” Mr. Solo repeats, and then starts laughing, loud and genuine. “Oh shit, kid, there’s no need to call me ‘sir’, just Han is fine.”  
Hux’s shoulders immediately slump in relief. That’s way better than he was anticipating.

“Listen, uh, I just wanted to say,” Han starts, leaning forward more and giving Hux the same exact half-smile he’s so used to seeing on Ben, “now, uh, I know I don’t really know you yet, but from what I’ve seen, how you’ve helped Benny with his schoolwork and just…well, in the times I’ve talked to him recently, he seems like he has a bit more of a grasp on himself lately. I dunno if that makes sense. He seems…a bit less impulsive. Less wild.” Han pauses to laugh again briefly. “Now, I know he got all that from me but it’s just…you’ve had a good effect on him.” 

Hux sucks his lower lip into his mouth, quite unsure what to say, because this is independent from his pretending to date Ben; Hux actually apparently _has_ had this effect on Ben, just from their friendship.

“Yeah, well Ben is, um,” Hux starts, but trails off, not sure how to continue. He doesn’t want to say something weird and romantic, not to Ben’s _father_ , but saying that Ben is “a good dude” doesn’t really seem like it’ll cut it either. 

Luckily, Ben intervenes at that moment, groaning and telling his dad, “Stop threatening him, or whatever you’re doing, ugh.” Evidently Ben hadn’t heard the nice things Han was saying.

Han chuckles, and then points his finger at Hux and says in an overly exaggerated, threatening tone, “If you ever hurt my son, I’ll come after you, I have a gun in my closet, I won’t hesitate—”

“ _Dad_ , stop! Jesus…” Ben complains loudly, leaning across Hux to shove his dad’s hand away. “Don’t threaten to kill Armie, he’s too sweet for that.”

Hux feels his ears redden, just a bit, at the comment; he _really_ needs to get a hold of himself — they haven’t even been here a whole day. He can’t get phased every time Ben says something nice about him. Not to mention that he needs to be able to reciprocate, otherwise Ben’ll get pissed at him. 

“Oh, you know I’m kidding,” Han says, slapping his knees and standing up. Hux watches him head back into the house, thanking his lucky stars that Han is so okay with him. More than okay.

“Or am I?” Han yells back over his shoulder before the door swings shut behind him, eliciting a loud sigh from Ben. 

“Your dad is a _lot_ different than mine,” Hux tells Ben and Rey, shaking his head. 

“Yeah, well, he likes you,” Ben says darkly. He’s hinted at issues with his dad before to Hux, but not said anything specific; from what Hux has seen so far though, they seem perfectly fine. Maybe because there’s a guest around. 

The there of them spend the rest of the afternoon out there, under the sun; at one point, Hux decides to take a walk in the woods bordering the backyard. Just to get a few moments to himself. It’s a lot to take in — not just the totally foreign environment he’s found himself in (he hasn’t really gotten over how enormous the house is quite yet), but the energy of Ben’s mom and sister, seeing for the first time how Ben acts when he’s around people he knows other than Hux, the fact that he’s going to have to keep this up for a whole week, and, especially, how casual and natural Ben is with his pretending to be attracted to Hux already. Yeah, sure, Hux’s crush is gone, but Ben’s not exactly hard on the eyes, and they’ve gotten pretty close at this point, so it’s just…weird. 

 

 

Over dinner, Leia tells Hux that they don’t have anything planned for tomorrow — she suggests that Ben might take Hux into the town and just show him around — but for the upcoming Monday they thought about going into “the city.” When Hux looks confused at this, Ben has to tell him she means New York. Hux has never been — the only place he’s been in America is school — so he’s excited, and he tells them as much. Apparently the Organa-Solo family goes into New York often; they even have an apartment uptown (which Hux thinks is excessive, although obviously he doesn’t voice this). Ben lights up at the idea of being able to show Hux around the city for the first time, and Hux can’t help but smile at how happy he looks. Honestly, even though Hux grew up going into London on a fairly regular basis, New York has always intimidated him, so he’s glad that he’ll have Ben guiding him for his first time. 

The evening is low-key; they all just sit together in the living room, with a _Friends_ marathon on the TV, chatting periodically. Hux doesn’t contribute that much to the conversation, still getting his bearings, but it’s honestly a lot like the evenings he’s shared with Ben in the past, except Ben is sitting a lot closer to Hux than normal. Usually, at Hux’s apartment, Hux crunches up in the corner of his couch, letting Ben spread out over the whole other half; tonight, Hux is in a normal spot near the middle and Ben is right up next to him, their sides lightly pressed together. Thankfully, Ben at least remembers Hux insistence that he doesn’t try holding Hux’s hand or anything like that; Ben keeps his long arms securely to himself for the duration of the evening. 

At around 10:45, Hux feels himself starting to nod off. It’s been a long day and, save for some of the weekend nights Ben comes over, Hux is typically in bed with a book by 10:00, light out by 10:30. He tries to focus on the TV screen, where Chandler and Rachel are currently eating a cheesecake off the floor, but his rapidly closing eyes are betraying him, and Ben’s side is just really soft and warm and easy to lean on…

Ben can apparently sense that Hux is falling asleep, he whispers Hux’s name in his ear a few times as he pats Hux’s leg slightly. 

“You should go up to bed,” Ben says softly. “Come on.”

Hux rubs his eyes, groaning, and when he looks around he sees that the TV’s still on, muted, and the rest of the room is empty.

“Wherriz everyone?” Hux asks groggily, realizing he must have actually fallen asleep. He notices that his head’s resting on Ben’s shoulder and he quickly picks it up.

“They all went up to bed a while ago,” Ben explains softly. “It’s like two am.”

“What the f…why didn’t you get me up?” Hux asks, sitting forward and grabbing his phone to verify the time.

Ben shrugs, standing up. “I didn’t want to disturb you. You know, you’re kind of an adorable sleeper.”

Hux groans. “You know you don’t have to say that shit unless people are around,” he says, standing as well and heading out of the room.

“I’m a method actor, baby,” Ben says, winking and nudging Hux’s shoulder. 

Hux rolls his eyes. “You do remember what I said about ‘pet names’ right?”

“Jesus, even in the middle of the night you’re snappy. Remind me never to spend the night with you.”

“We won’t ever, not if I have anything to say about it,” Hux replies as they reach the top of the stairs. “You’re probably a terrible person to sleep with anyway, hogging the blankets and spreading your limbs anywhere.”

“Actually, most of the people I’ve slept with have said quite the opposite,” Ben says grinning; Hux dramatically rolls his eyes again. 

“You know that’s not what I meant, ugh. You’re so fucking full of yourself.”

“Maybe I could be full of you for a change?” 

Hux shoves Ben in the side, hard; he stumbles but comes up grinning. 

“Jeez, Huxey, come on, you completely set that up for me.” 

Hux is about to reply, but they’re interrupted by a door in the hallway opening in front of them. Rey pokes her head around the doorway at them.

“Could you kindly shut the fuck up?” she asks, voice thick with sleep. 

“Sorry, dude,” Ben stage-whispers, leading Hux towards the guest room across the hall. 

“Don’t forget that my room shares a wall with yours,” Rey says, before the door snaps shut behind her. 

Hux sighs, while Ben giggles. 

“Goodnight,” Hux whispers, stepping into his room. Ben gives Hux his customary good-bye salute over his shoulder before heading off to his own room.

Hux runs through his night-time routine as fast as possible; when he finally climbs into the bed — which is way more comfortable than a guest bed has the right to be — he’s asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.

 

***

 

**Sunday, November 18**

“GOOOOOD MOOOOOOOORNING!”

“WHAT THE FUCK, BEN!”

Hux is sitting straight up in bed from the shock; Ben stands over him, laughing his ass off. 

“You fucking suck,” Hux grumbles, pulling the blanket up to cover his scrawny bare torso; he really doesn’t need Ben “I-go-to-the-gym-every-fucking-day” Solo to see him. 

“Good morning to you too, beautiful,” Ben says in a fake-sappy voice, rumpling Hux’s already disheveled hair.

“Ugh, ‘beautiful’? Fuck off,” Hux says, swatting Ben’s hand away, mentally trying to force him out of the room so he can get up and get dressed. 

“Method acting, remember? But, okay, don’t take a compliment,” Ben says snarkily. Instead of leaving as Hux hoped, he instead walks over to the closet and opens the doors. “Let’s see what you have to wear today…hmmm…button down, blue sweater, blue sweater, slightly different shade of blue sweater…ooh, a grey sweater, that’s really branching out, button down, blue sweater…how about for pants, let’s see, black skinny jeans, dark blue skinny jeans, black dress pants okay okay that’s different, black skinny jeans…”

“Get out of here,” Hux sighs, walking over to the closet with his arms crossed and pulling out, to Ben’s amusement, black skinny jeans and a light blue sweater.

Hux likes that combination, and it’s much easier to find a type of clothing that fits him and just buy a bunch of those when they’re on sale, than anything else. 

“I’ll see you downstairs, I made breakfast,” Ben says, finally moving towards the door.

“No, you didn’t??” Hux replies, slightly annoyed, buttoning his pants. 

“Yeah of course I fuckin’ didn’t,” Ben laughs, leaving the room.

Once he’s gone, Hux grabs his toiletry kits and heads into the bathroom to shave, brush his teeth, moisturize, and gel down his hair. He remembers that Ben’s planning on taking him into town today; Hux must admit he’s excited to see where Ben grew up. 

When he gets downstairs there’s a spread of food on the table: fluffy pancakes, sausages, toast with assorted jams, a variety of fresh cut fruit, and eggs (scrambled and hard-boiled).. There’s a chorus of greetings when he walks in, from Ben and Rey at the table eating, and Leia in the kitchen. Ben’s dad isn’t there; Hux remembers Ben telling him that his dad had to go into work today, even though it’s a Sunday, since he’s taking the rest of the week off.

“Here, come, sit down,” Ben’s mom says, gesturing at an empty place-setting. “Benny told me you like breakfast tea, so I have a kettle on. Should be done any moment.”

“Oh, thank you, very much. And good morning,” Hux says, sitting at the table and immediately going for the toast, fruit and eggs. 

“Oh, yes…” Rey says under her breath as Ben groans.

Hux looks around at them, eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

“We made a bet for what you’d eat,” Rey explains as Ben hands her some money. “I had eggs. Ben thought you’d go for the sausages.”

Hux is extremely tempted to make a dick joke, but he certainly won’t, not in present company.

“They _love_ making bets,” Leia chimes in, setting a steaming mug in front of Hux, “Even on the stupidest things. They get it from their father.”

“Thank you, for you going out of your way to make me tea,” Hux says again to her, warming his hands around the mug of tea, “And the food looks wonderful.”

Leia shakes her head, addressing Ben as she says, “I don’t know what you did to get him. I’ve never seen someone this naturally polite at nineteen. I know I sure as hell wasn’t!”

Hux takes a large bit of egg in lieu of replying, forcing Ben to do so. He can’t think of any response to that because, honestly, he wouldn’t ever consider dating Ben; they’re too different. Hux would need stability and order and reliability, and Ben would contribute absolutely none of those things. So, technically, Leia is right. 

After breakfast, Rey leaves immediately, hollering behind her that she’s going to her friend Finn’s house for the day. Ben and Leia share a knowing look.

“She has a huge crush on that guy,” Ben explains to Hux as they take their dirty dishes into the kitchen. “He’s the one she was talking about yesterday, it’s adorable because they both very clearly like each other but neither has the balls to make the first move so they just hang out and make moon-eyes at each other and convince themselves the other one acts like that just because they’re such good friends.” 

_That’s so cute,_ Hux thinks, as he offers to help Leia clean up from breakfast. She insists she’s fine, swatting Hux with a dish towel to get him out of the kitchen, telling him to have a good day with Ben. 

As they’re getting their coats on, Ben asks Hux whether he’d rather drive or take the twenty-minute walk into town. Hux elects to walk, citing enjoying the fresh air and that they’re not in a hurry, when it’s really because he would never trust Ben behind the wheel of a car. 

The day’s a lot chillier than yesterday; a breeze tugs on the sleeves of Hux’s jacket and at the ends of his hair, threatening to undo his careful gel-ing down this morning. He makes sure to walk closer than normal to Ben when they’re still in view of the house (but keeps his hands securely in his pockets in order to ward off any attempted hand-holding again); once they’re around a curve of the street he moves away to a respectable distance. 

“I’m enjoying the trip so far,” Hux says to Ben, who’s focusing on repeatedly kicking a pebble in front of him. “Your family’s cool.”

“Yeah, it’s, uh, going well,” Ben replies between kicks. “I knew they’d like you. Who wouldn’t, you’re like a parent’s wet dream.”

Hux raises his eyebrows, glancing over at Ben, trying to gauge with what emotion he said the last sentence, but Ben’s face is unreadable as he focuses on his pebble. 

Usually, their conversation flows easily, driven by Ben and his tendency to say whatever pops into his head at a given moment, but, while they walk, Hux finds himself grasping at things to say. He puts it off as Ben’s not being a morning person, and since Hux doesn’t mind a peaceful walk, he doesn’t force conversation. 

The walk is slow and leisurely (and held up at several points by Ben accidentally kicking his rock off the side of the road and stopping to go fetch it); it’s about a half hour before they arrive in the town. Hux immediately loves it: the narrow streets lined with squat brick buildings, tiny cobblestoned alleyways, and old trees leaning over to shed the last of their leaves into the road. The majority of the businesses seem to be little independent stores of various types, interspersed with a few cafés spilling their tables out onto the sidewalk. Clusters of people wrapped in wool coats and scarves walk up and down the street, calling out greetings to each other more often than not. It’s all very quaint and homely. _Quite the opposite of Ben,_ Hux thinks. 

“Where do you want to go?” Ben asks, his normal grin back, whatever was eating at him earlier gone. He’s finally let his pebble go. 

“I don’t fucking know,” Hux laughs, side-stepping to nudge Ben’s shoulder. “You’re the one who grew up here. And you never talk about it.”

“There’s a candle shop? Over there?” Ben says, pointing vaguely down the street. “I feel like you’d like that. I’ve bought you candles before.”

Hux does, in fact, love candles, and is now very glad he thought to bring some of his spending money. 

“There’s also, um, a soap store, and a candy shop, and, uh, a really nice bookstore, and a ‘fancy coffee’ shop, you’ll like all those, too,” Ben says as they head towards the candle shop. 

Hux no longer thinks he brought enough spending money. But he’s already decided that he won’t let Ben buy him anything; he _cannot_ get dependent on that, he should only buy stuff he’s earned the money for. The gifts in exchange for helping Ben with his work, or paying for dinners together, Hux can excuse, but not anything else. It would honestly make Hux feel slightly too much like a sugar baby, and he _really_ doesn’t want that. That’s a whole different level of weird.

Just after they walk into the candle shop, before Hux has time to process how much he adores the dark, sweet-smelling shop, the older man behind the counter greets Ben by name. Ben had explained how, since the town is so small, most of the people know each other, particularly the shopkeepers, who like to get to know everyone. That concept is still a bit weird to Hux, as he listens to Ben and the shopkeeper exchange pleasantries, while bending over the nearest shelf to start looking through (and smelling) all the candles. 

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Hux hears Ben say, and Hux finds himself being yanked forward by a large hand around his arm. “This is my boyfriend, Armitage.”

He says it so quickly and easily, hand still wrapped (softly) around Hux’s arm, that for a second Hux almost believes it, too. 

“Pleasure to meet you,” Hux says to the shopkeeper, holding out a hand to him, and in the process forcing Ben’s hand off. 

“Oh, wonderful!” the proprietor says, giving Hux a warm smile. “It’s hard to believe Benny’s settled down with someone, and to the point of bringing you home with him! He was always so wild.”

“Okay, okay…” Ben says with an exaggerated sigh. “We can just…forget about all of that.”

The shopkeeper chuckles and leaves them to look around. Hux ends up buying two candles, one that’s shaped like a dragon (because a dragon-shaped candle?? That’s really cool), and one with a smell Hux can’t quite place but that comforts him in a way he can’t really explain. 

They spend the rest of the morning and afternoon wandering around the shops and the streets; Hux gets progressively more used to Ben introducing him to people as his boyfriend (he wasn’t kidding about how many people know each other in this town), and even lets him keep a light hand on Hux’s upper back sometimes. He also spends a good chunk of the spending money he’d allotted for the entire week, because Ben was right, he really does love all these adorable shops. 

Around mid-day they eat at one of the little cafés, Ben insisting on just buying an array of little pastries and cookies to eat, disregarding Hux’s protests that it’s neither real food nor sufficient for an entire meal. Hux would never admit it but he ends up thinking it’s one of the best meals he can remember having. It’s also one of the best days he’s had in a long time.

After Hux and Ben come back to the house in the late afternoon, the evening is passed very similarly to the one yesterday: there’s a home-cooked meal accompanied by a lot of boisterous conversation (which Hux mostly stays back from still, only really talking when someone asks him a direct question), followed by sitting in the living room with the TV in the background. Hux sits with a book he bought earlier that afternoon, curled up on the couch next to Ben, who periodically laughs or quietly comments at stuff Rey shows him on her phone. Hux half-wishes he could have a glass of wine, but he’s not really sure the protocol for that; he’s technically underage in America (not that that obviously ever stops him), but since he’s in someone else’s home he doesn’t want to overstep anything. He also figures it’s probably a good thing he can’t drink because he’s sort of forming a habit and he’s much too young for that. 

Refusing to let himself fall asleep on the couch again, Hux preemptively heads up to bed around 11:00; Ben follows him up, saying he wants to get a lot of sleep before they go into New York tomorrow. Hux tries to ignore the suggestive look Rey and Leia quite obviously share. Ben surprisingly makes no comment on this once they reach the hallway upstairs, simply telling Hux, “Good night, beautiful,” with an overly large smile, making Hux grimace slightly, before they go their separate ways for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you're enjoying it so far!
> 
> tumblr: [fuckhux](http://fuckhux.tumblr.com)
> 
> I don't usually like long notes so I'll try to keep it brief, but a few things:  
> 1 I know that they're not sharing a room and that it's a key part of fake relationship fics!!!! but don't worry, there's plenty of story left......  
> 2 If you caught my not-very-subtle vine reference, I love you  
> 3 I know I'm being super vague about geography, I don't know anything about the east coast's geography so sorry for that! (I also have no idea if towns like that exist in Connecticut but whatever)  
> 4 I saw that tweet about (the real) Hux's clothes when I was writing this and I was shook and I couldn't help but include that whoops


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this chapter took so long to get up, I've had midterms but that's over now (thank god).

**Monday, November 19**

 

They take a morning train into New York; Hux spends the entire ride staring out the window as the trees zooming by turn into buildings that gradually increase in size. Ben’s crammed up next to him watching YouTube vine compilations on his phone, one hand turned up on his knee in a very obvious _“I know you said you refused to hold hands but if you’ve changed your mind you totally can_ ” position, which Hux does not accept. He’s only just becoming used to Ben’s being in his personal space whenever they’re together now, although he must admit that it’s nice sometimes having Ben’s warm side against his. 

Hux hadn’t realized that the train was taking them into the famed Grand Central Terminal until they’re suddenly walking into the enormous golden concourse that Hux has seen hundreds of times in movies, and the sight quite literally makes him stop in his tracks. 

“Shit, I…I should be taking photos,” Hux says, realizing he hasn’t taken a single picture thus far on the trip; he really wants to be able to remember this.

Ben rolls his eyes. “You’re such a fucking tourist, Armie.”

“What…what the fuck else would I be?” Hux says with a sigh, snapping a couple photos of the ceiling. “I’ve never been here before. It’s beautiful. You’d do the same if you visited London.”

“Oh, so we’re taking photos of beautiful things?” Ben says teasingly, making a big show of pulling out his phone and pointing it at Hux, who immediately shoves the phone away with an annoyed huff.

“There’s not even…you’re family’s, like, thirty feet away, you don’t need to say that,” Hux says, pointing to where the others have continued walking without them. 

Ben looks over at Hux, working his jaw for a moment, but ends up just shrugging and walking after his family. Hux decides not to ask what Ben was thinking about — since he typically has no filter, it must have been something he really didn’t want to say. Which doesn’t really make sense, given the context. Whatever.

As they walk from the station outside, Ben turns to Hux and, as if their conversation never took a break, says, “Just don’t be stopping, like, every five seconds to take a picture because it’s annoying and we have a lot to do and you can find any of this on Google Maps anyway.”

“You…no…that’s not the point,” Hux mutters, knowing Ben isn’t listening, struggling to keep up with the Organa-Solos’ pace — they all walk much too fast for Hux’s taste. 

“By the way, we’re not gonna do any of the stupid tourist-y stuff, like going up in the Empire State Building or some shit,” Ben tells Hux as they walk. 

“But I…I want to see it,” Hux replies softly, feeling a bit dumb. 

Ben stops Hux with an arm thrown across his chest, then grabs Hux’s shoulders and spins Hux around so he’s facing the direction they came.

“See that tall building off in the distance?” Ben asks, pointing downtown. 

“Uh, yeah?” 

“There it is. Congrats, you saw one fucking building out of thousands. Let’s go.” Ben laughs at Hux’s indignant look, shoving him in the back to get him walking again. 

 

Museums are evidently deemed not too tourist-y by the family, as they spend the late morning perusing the MoMa. Hux has to snap quietly at Ben several times when he gets way too close to some priceless paintings, and each time Ben just shrugs at Hux like it’s no big deal, which slightly enrages Hux. Part of him hopes a security guard will kick Ben out, just so Hux can gloat. 

Sadly, that doesn’t happen, but taking sandwiches into Central Park for lunch completely makes up for it; Hux has always wanted to walk around the park, since he’s seen it so many times in movies and it’s always just seemed so beautiful. He gets a little more excited than he should when they’re strolling down a path after eating and he realizes he recognizes the area from a movie or something; he’s describing to everyone how it was winter and the characters were going ice skating, but neither Ben nor his parents have any idea what he’s talking about.

Until Rey suddenly yells, “Oh I know! It’s from Gossip Girl!”

Hux immediately turns beet-red because oh God, she’s right, and he never ever intended to tell Ben he’s watched any of it, much less the entire show through (twice, shut up), because he’ll never hear the end of it. 

Hux tries to backtrack as fast as he can, stuttering that it’s not that, it must have been something similar, but his blush is giving him away, and Ben’s already turned on him with a wicked grin. 

“ _Gossip Girl_?! Holy shit, Armie, are you serious? That’s the best fucking thing I’ve heard.” He’s stopped walking because he’s practically bent over laughing, eyes squeezed shut. 

“Okay, okay,” Hux sighs, trying to wave it off, but Ben’s not done. Rey, and even Ben’s parents, are also giggling at Hux.

Between breaths, Ben manages, “I can’t fucking believe you. You’re always talking about and making me watch all this hoity-toity intellectual shit, you have a fucking English and History major, but you secretly love watching fucking _Gossip Girl_ , this is too good. You always surprise me.”

Hux gives up and starts trying to explain how it’s an interesting show, with all the drama and everything, but Ben’s not having it, still laughing periodically and insisting that Hux can never again judge him for anything he watches. Even when the conversation moves on, Hux hears Ben occasionally giggle and say under his breath, “Gossip Girl…”

They spend the better part of the afternoon poking around shops in SoHo; everyone but Hux ends up buying a few things, but he’s content with what he bought the day before in the town. When the day starts to turn into evening, Leia tells Hux and Ben that she, Rey, and Han are going to be off. When Hux looks thoroughly confused, Ben explains that apparently they had decided, without clueing Hux in, that the two of them are going to spend the night in the family’s city apartment, because as Leia explains, they “shouldn’t have to be around the rest of us the _whole_ time”, followed by a wink that makes Hux want to recede into a shell. Once Ben’s family sets off for the nearest subway station, after he gives each of them a big hug (which Hux finds quite endearing), he tells Hux that they also have dinner reservations and should get going so they’re not late. 

The restaurant is in Little Italy, only a short walk from their current location, and Ben is uncharacteristically quiet. Hux wonders why until they arrive at dinner, and he suddenly understands: the restaurant is tiny, dark, candlelit, full of couples — it’s unquestionably a romantic spot. 

“Ben, what the f—”

“Okay, okay, before you yell at me,” Ben stage-whispers at Hux, since they’re in the quiet entryway of the restaurant and it would be rude, even for Ben, to be loud, “my mom made the reservation without my knowledge and it’s not that easy to get a spot and it’s really good and you should try New York Italian food and anyway if we went somewhere else and she saw it on my credit card…”

Hux sighs in begrudging understanding, clapping his hands together. “Fine, it’s just a meal, right? We’ve had plenty of meals together, and some people would probably argue that a night on the couch with a homemade meal and a bottle of wine is way more romantic than this. We’ve done that several times. It’s fine.”

Ben grins at Hux, giving him a momentary rub on the shoulder. “Thanks, beautiful. I’ll go check us in.”

Hux opens his mouth to complain about Ben using that fucking word again, but his jaw snaps shut when he realizes that nothing he says is going to make Ben stop it, and he’s already being hard enough on Ben as it is. Taking a deep breath, Hux thinks back to all his reasons he agreed to go on this trip, his wanting to show Ben his gratitude, so he’ll suck it up for four more days, let Ben call him beautiful and have a “romantic” dinner with him and maybe, _maybe_ he’ll take up an offer to hold Ben’s hand. 

They get a seat upstairs next to a window; the view outside is gorgeous. While they wait for their food, Hux forces Ben to tell him stories about his childhood, since Ben is usually completely hush-hush about anything before, like, junior year of high school. By the time their dinner arrives, Hux is practically in stitches over Ben’s overly embellished tales of the shenanigans he got up to as a child; it’s the most Hux can remember laughing in a long time, and by far the most he ever has with Ben. Usually when they hang out, the main focus is a movie or Ben’s schoolwork — they don’t really ever just talk for long periods of time. 

When the waiter brings their food, he asks how long they’ve been together and Hux almost corrects him, but Ben swoops in first with a casual “Just since October, but it’s been really lovely.” He smiles at Hux with the last bit, and for fucking once, Hux doesn’t turn red. 

The waiter asks Ben a few more questions before smiling, telling them they’re adorable and to enjoy their meal, and walking off to check on the other patrons.

Hux sees the apology in Ben’s eyes but cuts it off, saying “It’s fine. Really. ‘Method acting’ or whatever shit. That’s what I’m here for. I don’t mind.” 

Ben can apparently see Hux’s sincerity so he just nods and starts digging into his pasta dish. He was right — the food is _amazing_ — and before Hux knows it, his plate is clean. Ben gets the check after turning down dessert, telling Hux that they’re going somewhere else for dessert, which turns out to be a cheery little Italian pastry shop a few blocks away. Ben orders them a few things, one of which, at Hux’s insistence, is a slice of classic New York cheesecake (“Because _I_ am a fucking tourist, Ben”), and they sit at a little table along the wall to share the desserts.

Ben has his now-familiar “wanting to say something” expression, and Hux tells him to just spit out whatever it is.

“You know, I never properly thanked you,” Ben starts, absentmindedly twiddling with his fork, gazing down at the table. “I’ve always been shit with thanking people for stuff. But, I, uh…thank you for coming along and going along with everything and letting me be all…you know…yeah.” He trails off, keeping his head ducked down but peering up at Hux through his eyelashes. 

Hux shrugs. “After all the shit you’ve gotten for me, it’s the least I can do. I’ve already told you I’m having a good time.” He expects Ben to just drop it after this, but he presses on.

“No I mean, like…I know you don’t know because you’ve obviously never been around my parents before and shit, and you’re not there when I’m talking to them privately obviously, but like they’re definitely treating me differently and…and more like respectful and shit.” He pauses to sigh and dig his hands through his unkempt hair, tying it quickly into a half-bun. Hux remembers how much he used to love seeing that. “I’m not really sure how to describe it exactly, but it’s like since they think I have responsibility for once then they’re acting like I’m more responsible and like mature or whatever which is really nice.”

Ben has more or less said the same sentiment to Hux before, so he just nods, swallowing a bite of cheesecake before simply replying, “Yeah, absolutely. I’m getting more used to the situation, I know I’ve been kind of shaky, but it’s all good.”

Hux reaches across the table to lay a hand softly on Ben’s arm, trying to show him it’s really okay. 

Ben’s eyes flick over to Hux’s hand, but he doesn’t comment on it, instead saying, “I know that you’re not really a fan of like…human contact, so I really appreciate whatever.”

“Yeah it’s a little weird pretending to date someone before I ever actually have for real,” Hux admits quietly. 

“I mean, you know I’ve never actually dated anyone either…” Ben says, bringing his hands together in front of his mouth. “This is the most, like, fluffy shit I’ve ever done, or whatever. It’s a bit hard for me, too.”

Before Hux can reply, Ben suddenly slams his fists down on the table, standing and announcing, “I’m fuckin tired. Let’s go.”

 

When they’re waiting at the subway stop to go uptown, Hux reflects on how that was the most serious he can remember Ben being with him, especially surprising considering it was related to emotions (which Ben often tries to pretend he doesn’t experience). Maybe they’re moving onto the next step of friendship, when they can actually tell each other more important stuff. 

Hux is snapped out of this train of thought when he absentmindedly catches a glimpse of Ben’s phone screen and sees an unmistakably familiar blue and yellow text bubble pattern. 

“Are you fucking…are you on Grindr?” Hux asks in disbelief, and Ben just shrugs noncommittally, focused on typing out a message.

“Yeah. Why?” 

Mouth gaping open, Hux tries to find a way to articulate why he’s becoming so pissed, but he doesn’t really know what to say. 

“It’s how I’ve always met guys,” Ben says casually, “There’s so many in the city, I mean how else do you fucking think? That the tiny town I grew up in is just somehow full of a bunch of gay guys?” He’s laughing, looking over at Hux as though expecting him to join in, but Hux just keeps his eyes narrowed in incredulity. 

“I dunno, I just…” Hux starts, struggling for words, “If we’re going to be sharing an apartment, don’t fucking bring any of them back there.” That _is_ one of Hux’s concerns, along with not wanting Ben to leave him alone in the middle of the city to go meet some guy, but they’re not quite the whole reason Hux feels uncomfortable, and he’s not really sure what else it could be. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Ben says, not really paying attention to Hux, smirking at something on his phone. “I’m not planning on actually hooking up with anyone, it’s just fun to talk to them while I’m in the city, y’know?”

“No I don’t…” Hux mutters, relieved that Ben’s neither going to abandon him, nor force Hux to listen to him fucking some dude in the apartment. 

Just then, the train comes screeching out of the tunnel to stop in front of them; Ben stuffs his phone into his pocket and follows Hux through the doors. They get off at a station uptown, and Ben leads Hux on a short walk towards the apartment. Hux is expecting something huge and expensive, like he often sees on TV (yes, like Gossip Girl, shut up), but the apartment is surprisingly modest, just a spacious living area/kitchen with tasteful, minimalist decor, and a couple doors Hux assumes are bedrooms on the opposite wall. 

“Take whichever room you want,” Ben says, flopping himself across the couch and pulling his phone out again, to Hux’s chagrin.

The two bedrooms are practically identical; Hux picks the one that has a thicker comforter on the bed. He’s about to go back into the living area to join Ben when he realizes — since he was not made aware of their spending the night in the city until this afternoon — he has nothing with him. No pajamas, no clothes for tomorrow, no toothbrush, no face moisturizer.

“Ben, what the fuck,” Hux says as he re-enters the living area.

“What did I do now?” Ben grumbles from the couch, not looking up from where he’s carefully typing something.

Hux articulates his problems, and Ben just shrugs, still glued to his phone. “We have extra toothbrushes and shit in the bathroom, and it won’t kill you to wear the same thing tomorrow morning, change when we get home.”

“I don’t have any pajamas!” Hux complains, and then sighs. “Stop fucking sexting when we’re having a conversation, it’s weird.”

“Hey, you knew who I was when we became friends. And I can’t help if they’re all over me.” As if to underline his point, Ben’s phone chimes with three new messages.

“You practically forced me to be friends with you!”

For a moment Hux wonders what happened to the Ben he just had dinner with, who happily told Hux embarrassing childhood stories and was sweet and honest and cared what Hux had to say just as much.

“Do you not want to be friends with me?” Ben asks, but his tone is lighthearted. He looks up as Hux sits on the arm of a chair next to the couch.

“Of course I do, I just…” Hux trails off with a huff of breath. The strange feeling in his stomach, from thinking about Ben messaging those guys, still hasn’t quite dissipated. 

“Do you actually sleep in, like, legitimate pajamas?” Ben asks. The abrupt subject change startles Hux, but he’s glad to see Ben tossing his phone onto the ottoman and looking over at him.

“Of course, don’t you?” Hux replies, eyebrows scrunching together.

Ben lets out a short laugh and props his head on his hand. “No, I sleep naked.”

“You…what? Why?” Hux exclaims, slightly horrified. 

“Why _not_?” Ben grins at Hux’s shock. “It’s so comfortable, I’ve done it my whole life, I guess since you always had to share rooms in boarding school it makes sense you wouldn’t, but trust, me, try it.”  
“ _No_.”

“Suit yourself.” Ben shrugs, leaning back. “I don’t have anything you can sleep in though, so I guess you’ll be in your underwear or whatever.” 

Hux huffs, crossing his arms. “Why didn’t you let me know about this ahead of time, I would have packed.”

“I didn’t know either, my parents told me after we’d left this morning. I guess they thought we’d be too, uh, preoccupied to care about shit like wearing pajamas,” Ben says, and then grins again. “Do you wear, like, matching pajamas usually? Like a set? That is _so_ something you would do.”

Even though Ben’s right, Hux doesn’t give him the satisfaction of agreeing. Instead he just says, “Well, if we’re not doing anything else, I’m gonna go get ready for bed then.” Ben furrows his brow but doesn’t say anything ( _a first_ , Hux thinks), so Hux adds, “Good night.” 

Hux stops in the bathroom to brush his teeth and rinse the gel out of his hair, before going into his room and begrudgingly stripping down to his underwear. He’s pulled back the blankets and is about to get into bed when there’s a knock at the bedroom door. Hux spins around and narrows his eyes.

“You’re not naked, are you?”

Ben laughs through the door and answers, “No, but slightly insulted you’d be so against seeing that. Do you wanna watch a movie? _Wedding Crashers_ is in the DVD player.”

Hux sighs, scratching his head absentmindedly. That _is_ a good movie, but he really doesn’t want to have to get re-dressed. “I’ve already, uh, gotten undressed,” he calls through the door.

“Hot,” Ben replies immediately, “But do you want to or not?”

“I’m not watching a movie in my underwear Ben, no,” Hux says with a hint of regret. 

“Ugh, come onnnn, it’s no fun watching a comedy alone,” Ben practically whines. Hux can hear his fist pound against the door. “You can like, wrap in a blanket and I dunno…I can give you the sweatshirt I’m wearing?”

Hux sighs. It’s not that late, and he really does want to watch the movie, especially with Ben. The few times they’d watched comedy shows or movies (usually they watch dramas or historical things, since Hux typically insists, citing ownership over the couch and apartment), it was entertaining to see how much Ben would light up and laugh at every single thing, like a little kid. 

“Okay,” Hux says, walking over to open the door just wide enough to stick his head and hand out, gesturing for Ben’s sweatshirt. It’s stupid that Hux doesn’t just have his own; today he wore the black overcoat which he loves, but is not optimal for curling up in front of the TV with.

Somehow, even though Ben’s barely taller than Hux, his sweatshirt completely envelops Hux, covering his hands and half his thighs and practically swallowing him. It’s extremely soft on the inside, and Hux is able to stuff his legs up inside it when he sits on the couch, so he ends up quite pleased with the situation. 

Hux finds that he’s gotten so used to his proximity to Ben the last couple days that he doesn’t mind sharing a blanket or, because the blanket is a bit too small, having tuck himself up against Ben’s side in order to stay fully covered. Every time Ben laughs at the movie, Hux can feel his side vibrating, and if it’s something especially amusing, Ben will hit Hux’s legs with his huge hand and smile over at him, as if to make sure Hux is enjoying it, too. Hux thinks it’s the most content he’s been in a long time.

Three-quarters of the way through the movie, Ben falls asleep on Hux’s shoulder, his hair tickling against Hux’s neck. Hux lets him sleep there, surprisingly unbothered by it and careful not to move too much or disturb him, at one point reaching over to run a couple fingers through Ben’s hair, too see if it’s as soft as it looks (it is). 

At a few minutes past midnight, Hux lightly shakes Ben’s shoulder until he wakes up with a loud groan; lots of huffing and complaining and groaning and a few “fuck you”’s later, Hux successfully gets Ben off the couch and shoved towards his room. 

“Good night,” Hux says from his doorway as Ben struggles to work the doorknob. “I had a really good day, thank you.”

“Mmhmm. Good night, beautiful,” Ben grumbles, as if out of habit already, running a hand through his hair and heading into his room. 

Hux decides to keep Ben’s sweatshirt on to sleep in — much more comfortable that way — and once again falls asleep almost instantaneously. 

 

In the morning Hux wakes up late, to the sounds of Ben rusting and banging around the apartment. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Hux leaves the room to make sure Ben isn’t doing anything that will cause permanent damage. 

“Shit!” Ben yells, just as Hux sees he’s in the kitchen. There are several pans and various food items scattered around the counter.

“Oh God, are you trying to _cook_?” Hux exclaims, hurrying into the kitchen, afraid that Ben is about to burn down the apartment building.  
“Yeah, I, uh, shit…” Ben says around the fingers he’s sucking on.

“But you can’t cook!” Hux says incredulously, turning off the burner under a pan of eggs that look positively horrific. 

“I know, I tried…I heard eggs were easy so I went and bought eggs and vegetables and shit,” Ben says, gesturing with his other hand at the mess, “I figured, how hard is it to throw some eggs in a pan and make an omelet? Apparently fucking hard, Jesus, I’ve gone through like nine eggs and I burned my hand.”

“I’m surprised you even made it past chopping vegetables without cutting yourself…” Hux scoffs teasingly, gesturing for Ben to show him the burns. 

“Oh, no, those I bought pre-chopped,” Ben says, grinning, showing Hux his hand.

The burns aren’t bad at all; Hux turns on the sink and holds Ben’s fingers under the warm water. “You’re so fucking dumb,” Hux says quietly, shaking his head, “What the hell possessed you to try and cook?”

“Do you wanna get a bagel instead?” Ben suggests, ignoring Hux’s question. “There’s a great place nearby, and it is New York after all.”

“Sounds good.” Hux smiles at Ben and gives him his hand back, satisfied that he’ll be fine.

“Wow, we were practically holding hands right there, are you okay? Do you feel faint? Do you need to call your priest?” Ben exclaims with exaggerated concern, but can’t hold in his laughter. 

“Oh, fuck you,” Hux says, rolling his eyes. “I’m _trying_.”

“I know, beautiful, I know, you’re doing wonderfully,” Ben says, smiling and rubbing Hux’s shoulder. “Now go fucking get dressed, I need a bagel, I’m so hungry that I almost _ate_ some of these raw vegetables.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!! And an extra huge thank you to anyone who's left kudos or subscribed or left a comment, I literally printed out a bunch of your comments and have them the wall over my desk for motivation, so thank you!
> 
> I'm sorry they still don't have to share a bed yet....it'll happen I promise....
> 
> tumblr: [fuckhux](http://fuckhux.tumblr.com)   
> [ko-fi](http://ko-fi.com/fuckhux)


	6. Chapter 6

**Tuesday, November 20**

 

The train pulls into the station outside Ben’s town in the early afternoon; they again take the walk back to his house. It’s empty when they arrive, with a note on the marble kitchen island letting them know that Han is out having lunch with a friend, while Rey and Leia are grocery shopping in preparation for Thanksgiving dinner.

Hux perches on a stool next to the island while Ben tries to rustle up something they can have for lunch, insisting on trying to make up for the debacle at breakfast. Hux specifically mandates that the extent of cooking Ben is allowed to do is in the microwave. Ben manages to dig up the ingredients for sandwiches along with some vegetable soup; even this proves to be too much for him, as while slicing the tomatoes and cheese for the sandwiches, Ben manages to slice open his entire thumb. Hux just sighs and asks where they keep a first-aid kit. 

When Ben’s thumb is cleaned and wrapped (Hux _cannot_ believe how he managed such a large cut with such a small paring knife), Hux takes over making the food while Ben sits behind the island, popping open a beer he procured while Hux was out of the room. Hux chides him for day-drinking while he finishes constructing the sandwiches and sprinkles parmesan over the hot bowls of soup. Ben digs in as soon as Hux slides the dishes over to him, groaning around his first bite.

“This is the best fuckin’ sandwich I’ve ever had,” he says, and Hux just nods.

“You’ve said that about everything I’ve made for you,” Hux replies, stirring his soup to cool it down. “I think you just like having food served to you.”

“I mean, yeah, but it’s still amazing,” Ben says around his food, “I don’t get cooking, at all. Like, there’s so many ways to get injured, how do you never get hurt? And how do you know how much of each thing to put in or where?”

“Well, the first just requires common sense,” Hux teases, and Ben just rolls his eyes while downing half his drink in one go. “And have you never heard of a recipe?”

Ben shrugs. “I dunno. Cooking is just the _one_ thing I’m terrible at.”

It’s Hux’s turn to roll his eyes, while Ben just grins with exaggerated innocence. 

“My mom and sister literally kick me out of the house whenever they cook, especially for Thanksgiving, because they’re afraid that if I’m even in the vicinity of the kitchen I’ll fuck something up,” he says, laughing.

“I mean, they’re probably not wrong,” Hux replies, deadpan.

“Fuck you,” Ben says, flicking a piece of lettuce at Hux. 

The comment about Thanksgiving makes Hux realize he hasn’t actually asked Ben about Thursday at all, has no idea what to expect. His exposure to Thanksgiving dinners has been limited to what he’s seen on _Gossip Girl_ and _Friends_ , both very different portrayals, and likely neither quite like what the Organa-Solos do. When he voices this to Ben, he explains that it’s very low-key; this year will just be Ben’s family, Hux, his uncle, and his father’s best friend who Ben just calls his uncle for simplicity’s sake. Leia and Rey make all of the food since none of the men can cook to save their lives, and they always make way too much, so the family eats nothing but leftovers for several days afterwards. The football games are all on, except during dinner, also during which Leia insists on making everyone present say what they’re thankful for. Ben says that it’s tradition for the rest of them to complain, even though secretly he thinks they all enjoy it. 

“That sounds really nice,” Hux says truthfully as he rinses their dishes, “I’ve not experienced a family gathering like that before. I’m looking forward to it.”

After lunch, they move into the living room, Hux splitting his attention between a book and Ben, who’s on his phone and keeps smacking Hux’s leg when he wants to show him a meme. 

Leia and Rey return after not too long, laden with shopping bags that Hux immediately gets up to help unpack. He shares a knowing, exasperated look with Leia as they both look across at Ben, still sprawled across the couch, giggling at a meme; she thanks Hux profusely and he just shrugs, saying he’s just trying to pay her back for her hospitality. He blushes when she calls him a “wonderful young man” and once again voices her disbelief that he puts up with Ben, who gives a loud sigh from the other room and jokingly tells her to fuck off. 

Rey leaves to hang out with her friend Finn again, and the moment the door snaps shut behind her, Ben and Leia instantly started loudly groaning about when they’re finally going to get their act together and start dating. 

Dinner is takeout Chinese, since Leia’s going to be cooking so much the next couple days, and she doesn’t want to deal with the mess or dishes. Hux offers to make something, but she just dismisses him, saying a guest shouldn’t have to make a whole dinner for his hosts, especially since it’s his vacation. They eat from the containers, in the living room; Hux and Leia get started talking about politics, especially foreign policy, while Ben and Han hang back, visibly intimated from joining the conversation. It reminds Hux of the talks he’d have sometimes with his father, except there’s a lot more healthy debate with Leia; with his father, it was mostly Hux accepting what he was being told. 

In the late evening, Ben suggests that he and Hux go get ice cream from the shop in town. There’s an unexpected light snow outside, so Hux asks to borrow another one of Ben’s sweatshirts to go under his coat. On the walk, Ben, not unpredictably, acts like a puppy experiencing snow for the first time, running back and forth across the path, head back to try and catch as many flakes as he can in his mouth, kicking at the powder starting to accumulate on the ground. Hux just thanks his lucky stars there isn’t enough yet to make snowballs; he's not in the mood to have a fight. Though he knows he would win. 

Because of the cold, Hux keeps a brisk pace, and they’re in the town in ten minutes. Ben loops his arm lightly through Hux’s as he leads him towards the shop, visibly surprised when Hux doesn’t pull away, but makes no comment, just a small smile. 

The shop is predictably empty, as most people probably aren’t stupid enough to get ice cream in the snow, at night. Hux orders a simple strawberry triple-scoop in a cone, while Ben gets some horrible, giant concoction with multiple sauces and toppings, and somehow an entire brownie in there. After he’s payed, Ben _insists_ that they walk around outside while eating, vehemently ignoring Hux’s protests, contending that it’s apparently the only proper way to eat ice cream, regardless of the weather. Hux gives in after Ben just walks out, leaving Hux, scowling, in the shop. 

The snow’s falling harder now, which makes Ben light up even more. Very quickly he accumulates a dusting of flakes on the top of his wide shoulders and collected in his unruly hair; Hux can’t help but notice how the streetlamps illuminate the snowflakes caught in Ben’s eyelashes, making his eyes look even larger and brighter than normal as he grins over at Hux. 

“Isn’t this much better than sitting cooped up in that shop?” Ben asks, walking backwards in front of Hux.

Hux nods as he takes a lick of his extremely pink, extremely tasty ice cream, momentarily mesmerized by Ben’s eyes. 

He then realizes what that might look like, licking an ice cream cone while maintaining eye contact with Ben — that’s not at _all_ what he intends, but he figures that given the situation, he can brush it off if Ben says anything. 

Apparently Ben does notice, but instead of commenting (Hux should’ve known better), he just looks directly at Hux, with a teasing smile, and takes a large bite of his own ice cream, slowly swirling his tongue around his lips and the spoon, before pulling the spoon out of his mouth with an audible _pop_. 

Hux gnaws on the inside of his cheek to keep himself from giggling, because Ben looks a little bit ridiculous. Knowing that Ben expects him to probably blush or shy away or chide him, with a little burst of confidence, Hux does the exact opposite — staring right back, Hux slowly licks up the length of his ice cream, and then smoothly lowers his head to slide the remaining two scoops fully into his mouth, lips wrapping briefly around the cone, before pulling back even slower, letting a few streaks of the cream linger on his lips. 

Ben physically freezes from the shock, stops walking so abruptly that Hux nearly crashes into him, eyes wide and mouth hanging open, cheeks and ears tinged red from the cold. 

“Fuck, Hux, what…” Ben starts, running a hand through his hair. 

Hux keeps a serious expression for a few more moments before finally breaking into laughter and shoving Ben’s chest with his free hand to get him walking again. Ben spins around so he falls into step next to Hux. 

“Come on, it wasn’t _that_ outrageous. It was a joke,” Hux says, and then adds teasingly, “I wouldn’t have thought that would shock _you_ so much, Jesus.”

Ben’s quiet for a moment, working his jaw, before he finally says in a strangely flat tone, “I’m glad you’re getting into the spirit of this, finally.” 

Hux shrugs, still grinning. “Just getting more comfortable. Trying out your ‘method acting’ shit, so there’s not the pressure of your family around, it actually helps.” 

They pause at an intersection; Hux takes the opportunity to shake the snow from his hair and coat. Ben’s strangely quiet again. 

“Come on, that can’t’ve shocked you that much,” he chuckles, bumping Ben’s side with his shoulder, feeling oddly like their roles have been reversed. “I mean, you’ve probably had, what, like, _a bunch_ of blowjobs before.” 

Ben throws his hands up, tucking his shoulders up near his ears. “Sure, I guess, haven’t you?”

Hux narrows eyes, moving onto his last scoop of ice cream. “Ben, we’ve been over this.”

“Yeah, you’re a virgin, whatever, but those are unrelated,” Ben replies, chucking his empty paper bowl into a trash can. “Let’s start walking back, it’s getting fuckin’ cold.”

Even though he really doesn’t want to discuss his utter lack of sexual experience, Hux feels obligated to tell Ben that he hasn’t actually gotten (or given, for that matter) a blowjob. 

Ben’s eyebrows shoot up. “No, shit? How come?”

Hux waves a hand vaguely. “Not interested. Not enough to actually try and make it happen.” Ben still looks incredulous, and Hux scoffs. “It can’t be that surprising, you know I never leave my apartment except to go to class.”

Ben looks down at the sidewalk, to where he’s kicking up puffs of snow with each step, apparently thinking. Hux almost makes a crack about that, but decides against it since they’re being at least somewhat serious with each other at the moment. 

“And I feel like, I dunno,” Hux continues out of lack of other options, “I’ve waited this long, may as well keep waiting. I’m not gonna go get sucked off by some rando just to say I’ve done it.”

Ben nods, chewing on his bottom lip. He’s still kicking the snow, hands shoved deep into his pockets, head titled down so that Hux barely hears when he says, “I could do it, you know? If you wanted.” 

He says it so casually, like he’s asking something as mundane as watching a film. Thinking he misheard or misinterpreted, Hux asks for clarification.

Ben shrugs again, reaching up to rub a hand across the back of his neck, squeezing one eye shut with a sort of grimace as he looks over at Hux. “So it wouldn’t be, like, a thing for you anymore. I dunno. I could do it for you.”

It’s Hux’s turn to stop and stare at Ben, slack-jawed. “The _fuck_?”

“It was just a suggestion. Jesus, Hux, you’re so uptight.” Ben continues walking and kicking snow.

Hux stands still for a moment, mouth opening and closing repeatedly, like a fish. Then, jogging to catch back up with Ben, he manages to say, “I’m not being ‘uptight’, I’m reacting how most people would to that. People don’t just offer their friends blowjobs, Ben, what?”

“I just did,” Ben replies calmly, with another (now slightly infuriating) shrug, but he keeps his head down. “It’s not a big deal, we know each other pretty well, but I get if it’s crossing your boundaries or whatever. Just forget it, I guess.

He goes so quickly from offering to shutting it down that it takes a moment for Hux to process, to catch up. 

“O-Okay,” Hux says, thoroughly confused, especially so when Ben suddenly bends down in the snow that’s built up on the side of the road. 

“You, know, I’m pretty good, you’re missing out,” Ben says, loudly, with a small laugh, reverting abruptly back to his usual cocky, joking manner. 

Hux isn’t even finished rolling his eyes when a snowball suddenly smacks him square in the chest. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Hux crunches down the last of his ice cream cone and says quietly, “You didn’t want to do that.”

“Why not?” Ben asks, giggling, as another snowball bursts against Hux.

“Because I went to a boarding school that got a lot of snow,” Hux explains slowly, kneeling down to begin gathering snow in his hands. “With that much snow, and so many bored adolescent boys raging with testosterone, and not many outlets for it, you either became an expert at snowball fights, or you were annihilated. Thanks to my tendency to be extremely competitive, I was in the former group. 

By the time Hux has finished talking, he’s assembled five perfectly spherical, dense snowballs; he stands and then hurls them with perfect form, each one striking Ben right on the face before he has any time to react.

“Holy _shit_!” Ben yells, wiping snow from his eyes, while Hux just stares him down from where he’s collecting more ammo. “Fuck it, I’m not gonna fuckin’ mess with you.” Ben laughs and starts running down the road away from Hux, who sprints in pursuit, laughing and nailing Ben in the back of the head with three snowballs in a row, each one hitting and exploding with such force that Ben reels forward. 

“What the fuck!” Ben shouts, finally slowing when he realizes Hux’s hands are empty. “You’re a fuckin’ menace!”

Hux laughs breathlessly, pulling up to walk besides Ben. “I have some hidden talents. I’m stronger than I look, and I’m surprisingly agile.”

“You wanna show me just how agile?” Ben asks, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. When Hux huffs expectedly, Ben protests, “You walked into that one, come on, you were the one talking about fuckin’ blowjobs five minutes ago.” 

“True, true…”

 

 

When they get back to the house, they’re both chilly and flushed and shedding snowflakes onto the wooden floor. It’s later than Hux realized; everyone else has gone to bed, but neither of them are tired yet so Hux sets the kettle to boil so he can make them both cups of tea. Once the mugs are steaming and steeping, he heads into the living room, where he finds Ben’s wet clothes in a pile on the floor and Ben wrapped in the giant faux-fur blanket on the couch. He insists that Hux take off his cold, wet coat and jeans as well; Hux protests, since Ben’s claimed the only warm blanket. In response, Ben just flips up the edge of the blanket and pats the spot on the couch next to him. 

“I’m not naked, I promise,” he says, as if he read Hux’s mind, “And you can keep your — well, my — sweatshirt on, it’s fine. Come on. We can watch the History Channel or whatever.”

After carefully setting their teas on the coffee table, Hux peels off his coat and jeans before settling next to Ben, tucking the blanket up around his legs, deliberately leaving a slice of space between himself and Ben. Ben leans forward to grab his tea and the remote, flicking on the TV and simultaneously cursing because he apparently didn’t realize that the still-steaming tea would be too hot to drink. Hux tucks his own mug between his legs and blows on the surface as Ben clicks through the channels.

“Ooh, _Jurassic Park_ is on!” he says excitedly, selecting the channel and tossing the remote onto the couch next to him. “That’s sort of history. Same difference.”

The movie’s well into the second half, but Hux has seen it enough times to grasp what’s going on. They sigh in unison at the scene with shirtless Jeff Goldblum lounging around, and while the velociraptors are terrorizing everyone on screen, Ben presses his side up against Hux, bumping Hux’s wrist with his hand. 

“Still against holding hands? Isn’t that what a fuckin’ normal couple would do in this situation?” Ben asks quietly. 

“Yeah, I guess, but there’s not any reason to,” Hux answers, gesturing at the empty room around them.

Ben huffs and rests his head on Hux’s shoulder again, presumably because that requires no action on Hux’s part. Hux keeps his hands tightly clutching his mug of tea, but he smiles. 

 

**Wednesday, November 21**

 

Hux wakes late again, to a really good smell wafting up from downstairs. Once he’s showered and dressed, he heads down to find the kitchen a hub of activity — the counters are strewn with ingredients, bowls, and various measuring utensils, Rey’s tending something in a large pan on the stove, and Leia is chopping a bunch of herbs while she chats with Han across the island. 

They all greet Hux enthusiastically, and Leia tells him to find anything he wants to eat for breakfast. 

“Whatever that is, Rey, it smells amazing,” Hux says, pulling a yogurt from the fridge and grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl. 

“The beginning of stuffing!” she replies excitedly. “Not to boast, but it’s going to be _so_ good.”

Hux leans over to peer into the pan at the onions, mushrooms, and celery sizzling in butter. “I can’t wait to try it. I can’t wait to try _everything_.”

“Ooh, I forgot, you’ve never had a Thanksgiving!” Rey says, pulling the pan off the heat.

Hux steps aside to let her move to the counter where she starts chopping bread into cubes. “Yeah, well, if there were British holidays celebrating every time when we conquered other people, then…well, yeah.” He cringes slightly, and Rey laughs. 

“Well, we’re glad you’re here,” she replies, “ and I guess technically the pilgrims were British, so…”

Hux peels the lid of his yogurt, and moves around the counter to grab a spoon, turning to Leia to ask, “It looks like you have a good system going here, but I feel I should ask if there’s any way I can help?”

Leia waves her hand at him, but considering she’s holding a chef’s knife, it looks accidentally quite threatening. “No, no. If you must, you can help Ben with setting up the dining room tomorrow or something, but it’s really alright.” 

Hux nods, taking a spoonful of yogurt. “Where is Ben? Still asleep?”

“Outside,” Rey answers.

Hux glances outside, where there’s still snow drifting down past the windows, and then back at Rey with an eyebrow raised. “He wasn’t kidding when he said you kick him out for the cooking,” he says, laughing, and Rey shrugs.

“Two years ago, after a ton of bitching from him, we let him stay in the kitchen. The sweet potatoes got charred, a pie had entirely salt instead of sugar, and somehow the whole raw turkey ended up on the floor. So no, he’s outside the house completely from now on.” The seriousness with which she tells the story conveys to Hux that it’s all true, and he nearly chokes on his yogurt.

“Go keep him company,” Leia suggests, “and _make sure_ he doesn’t try to come in.” 

Hux tosses out his empty yogurt container and puts his rinsed spoon in the dishwasher before grabbing his coat from the hook by the back door and heading outside. Ben’s on the patio, bundled up in the faux-fur blanket on the outdoor couch, where the roof of the house extends enough that he’s not being snowed on. 

When Ben sees Hux he grins and shoves over just enough so Hux can sit next to him. 

“Good morning, beautiful,” he says as Hux sits and pulls the blanket around himself. 

“Hi,” Hux replies, opening his banana and staring out at the picturesque white lawn framed by snow-dusted trees. 

“Oh, don’t start again,” Ben laughs, eyeing Hux’s choice in fruit. 

Holding back a smile and making eye contact with Ben, Hux slowly lifts the banana to his mouth, slides it in partway, and then takes a forceful chomp out of it. 

“ _Fuck_ ,” Ben whispers, covering his face briefly with a hand. “That’s cruel.”

“I’m just eating breakfast, Ben, I don’t know what you mean,” Hux says with feigned ignorance. 

Ben scoffs and looks out at the yard. “I’m fucking freezing out here, they’re so mean to me. It’s not usually this snowy this early in the season,” he comments, “And now I’m also officially afraid of letting you anywhere near snow.”

They spend a couple hours sitting out there, talking about whatever comes to mind, topics ranging from the merits and drawbacks of each of the most popular memes that year (Ben’s idea), to how advances in AI technology might impact the near future (Hux’s idea), punctuated by Ben’s repeated complaining about how cold he is. Hux is too — he’s _really_ not dressed for the weather, not even wearing shoes, but even when he starts losing some feeling in his extremities, that’s not enough to make him go back inside. 

Around midday, Rey comes out to give them both large mugs of hot cocoa topped with generous helpings of whipped cream. She reports that the turkey is brining, the stuffing and three pies are in the fridge to be baked tomorrow, she’s about to start on cranberry sauce, and Leia’s currently forming dough for rolls. Ben immediately starts whining to her, begging to be allowed back in the house, but Rey smacks him on the back of the head, telling him that only when every single cooking-related thing is away for the day is he allowed back inside. She makes a crack about how they should be able to “sufficiently keep each other warm” before skipping back into the house and making mocking faces at Ben through the window; he flips her off.

Hux is finishing off the dregs of his cocoa when he’s struck with the realization that he hasn’t done any of his necessary schoolwork yet this week; he has a few various assignments including an essay due Tuesday of next week. He knows this is a perfect time to get started, since there’s not really anything going on, and he’s also gotten just a bit too cold to handle any longer. When he tells Ben, he throws back his head and starts loudly complaining about how Hux is going to abandon him out there to freeze and that schoolwork is unnecessary and stupid.

Hux scowls at Ben and says, “I know for a fact you have a paper to revise and the final is due this coming Monday.”

Stuffing himself further into the blanket, so that Hux can only see from his nose up, Ben grumbles, “I’m planning on just doing that on Sunday.”

Hux levels his gaze, gives an unamused expression. “It needs more work than that. A lot more.” 

“I don’ wanna.”

“You are an absolute child,” Hux sighs, knowing that if he lets Ben skirt around this, he’ll be knocking on Hux’s door on Sunday, and Hux will be forced to spend his evening working on Ben’s paper. Then an idea occurs to him. “You know, you’d probably be allowed back inside the house if it was to do work,” Hux suggests, and Ben immediately snaps to attention, titling his head with interest. 

“Will you go ask? Please, Hux, I’m fucking frozen,” he says, widening his eyes like a puppy and hitting Hux’s leg several times under the blanket. “I’ll be really focused, too, I promise, please, please make them let me come back in.”

“I’ll try my best,” Hux replies, standing and hissing at the cold air hitting him. He hurries inside and finds Leia still in the kitchen, covered in flour from the rolls she’s making. 

“He can’t come back in,” she says immediately, giving Hux a stern gaze. 

He puts on his best smile and says, “We have, um, a proposition.” Leia’s eyebrows raise slightly, but her look remains serious. “We both have schoolwork to do. If we’re upstairs working and Ben’s nowhere near the kitchen, is he allowed in?”

Leia presses her lips into a smirk and rolls her eyes. “Oh, ‘schoolwork’, I’m sure.” She makes air quotes with her flour-y hands. “I know what that means…”

Hux flushes red at her insinuation, and stammers, “N-No, really, I…we both have papers to write. I’m helping Ben revise his. Honestly.” 

Leia opens her mouth to say something, but is interrupted by Ben hollering from outside, “Hurry the fuck up, Armie, I’m losing feeling in my legs!”

Laughing and waving a hand at Hux, Leia says, “Sure, go ahead. I’m almost done in here anyway, but still, keep Ben upstairs. And keep the volume down.”

“We’re _writing papers_ ,” Hux insists, blushing again and moving towards the door, which he cracks open to stick his head out and say, “You can come in now.”

Ben springs up, trailing the blanket behind him like a cape, shuffles into the house behind Hux. He herds Ben upstairs, into the smaller living area up there ( _what house needs a living room on each floor?_ ), before going to retrieve his notebooks and computer. 

They work for a couple hours, making good progress, before Ben announces that he’s starving and is going downstairs for a snack. Hux nods; even though he hasn’t had lunch, he doesn’t really have an appetite, and just flips over to his own paper to continue cranking away on that. 

After a half hour, Hux is starting to think that Ben is trying to skip out on the rest of his work, so he decides to go down and investigate. Hux is almost down the stairs when he hears voices in the kitchen, specifically his name. He’s not usually one to eavesdrop, but the temptation is overwhelming, so he just stands on the penultimate step, just out of view of the kitchen.

“I’m not kidding, Ben,” Leia’s saying, with Ben groaning in the background. “Armitage obviously has a lot of feelings for you…”

“He’s just shy!” Ben protests. 

“Regardless, it’s probably even more intimidating to be around your family, you need to step it up,” Leia replies, and Hux can hear her tone is quite serious. Hux hadn’t realized he’d apparently been doing such a good job at his acting, but at the same wonders what the fuck the entire context is, what Leia “isn’t kidding” about. 

“I’m going back upstairs,” Ben says, and Hux jerks into action, quickly and quietly going back up several steps, so that when Ben comes around the corner, he’s coming down again, appearing as though he couldn’t have overheard anything. 

“Where the fuck did you go?” Hux asks, keeping his voice level, though he’s quite curious to see whether Ben will bring up his previous conversation. 

“I was having a snack, I got sidetracked,” Ben says with a slight bite to his tone. He must notice that, because he adds, “Shit, I’m not mad at you, I had a bit of an argument with my mom.”

“What about?” Hux asks casually as they start back up the staircase. 

Ben doesn’t reply until they’re back settled onto the couch. “My mom was saying I’m ‘not being a good boyfriend’,” he explains in an annoyed voice, which is a bit of a surprise to Hux, but makes sense, given what he overheard. 

“In what way?”

“She says I’m ‘not affectionate’ and that I ‘don’t at all show you I care’ or anything and that I ‘say nice things but never prove it’ and that she thinks that you think that I don’t really care about you or whatever or that I’m ‘not invested’ because she says that it seems like I just treat you like a friend.” Ben leans back, playing with the ends of his hair. 

“It’s my fault,” Hux says, flatly, “I’m sorry.” He knows how important to this is to Ben, how many times he’s mentioned the changes in his parents’ attitudes, and he feels a terrible mix of guilt and shittiness for jeopardizing that. He also notes that Ben didn’t mention the bit he overheard, about Hux’s ‘clear feelings for him’. 

“No, beautiful, you’ve been amazing, way better than I could have asked for, I know it’s hard for you and I’m so sorry for putting you in this situation, but I appreciate it so much,” Ben says promptly. It’s the most sincere apology Hux has heard from him, but then he goes on to say, “But could we just, like, make out or something where my mom would see us? It won’t be a big deal, just so that she sees—”

“ _No_ ,” Hux cuts him off, extremely taken aback, “Absolutely not! I…no, that’s a really big jump!”

Ben groans propping his head in his hands and giving Hux a side-eyed look. “It’s not a big deal, we’ve done it before, remember? And you know me way better now, you were willing to when I was a total fuckin’ stranger.”

Hux has not told Ben that he, in fact, doesn’t remember a single second of when they hooked up at that stupid party a couple months ago, and he was never intending for that to become an issue. But he feels obligated to tell the truth, so he does.

After Hux confesses, Ben just stares at him for a long moment. “I…what the fuck.”

“Seriously, I was very clearly pissed drunk, it can’t be that much of a shock,” Hux says, trying to brush it off. “And you were too, come on, why the fuck else would you _ask_ a random stranger to hook up with you.”

“I hadn’t realized you were so out of it…” Ben says quietly, fiddling with his hair again. 

“It’s not a big deal,” Hux says honestly, laying a hand on Ben’s knee, unsure why he’s so perturbed. “I don't regret it or anything. I mean, come on, a lot of good came out of it. It’s just that, yes, it would be weird for me to do that again, sober, in front of your _mother_ , Jesus.” 

That coaxes a bit of a laugh out of Ben. “Okay, but other stuff, stuff that’s less, uh, physical, can we? Please? You gotta.” 

“Sure. I would be just about there anyway,” Hux responds easily, nodding, and Ben swiftly leans over to wrap his arms around Hux. Who just sits there stiffly, not used to anyone giving him hugs, especially since Ben never has before.

“Okay, you’ve gotta fuckin’ work on this,” Ben comments, laughing and pressing even closer. “But thanks, really. I promise it won’t be too weird.” 

“Hey, at least your mom didn’t come to the conclusion that we’re not actually dating,” Hux points out, “So we must be doing something right.” 

“Fuck yeah,” Ben says, squeezing Hux tighter. 

With a tiny sigh of resignation, Hux shifts his weight just enough so that he can reciprocate, tentatively folding his arms around Ben’s broad torso, his cheek resting on Ben’s warm shoulder. Hux can feel Ben’s heartbeat, and it’s a bit of a weird sensation, but he also can’t help but notice how well they fit together. It’s quite nice. Cozy. Comforting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, and I hope you're enjoying it :D I wish I could show you what Ben thinks of everything but this is gonna be strictly Hux's pov, but hopefully some of the things Ben does show his thoughts a bit...
> 
> This chapter was a bit longer than usual, since I'm going home for a week and I'm not sure when I'll be able to get another chapter up, but I'll work whenever I can. As you can probably guess, they'll be getting a bit closer in the next chapter.... ;)
> 
> tumblr: [fuckhux](http://fuckhux.tumblr.com) (sometimes I'll do updates on when chapters are coming, etc, also if you want to talk to me/ask about anything please do!)  
> [ko-fi](http://ko-fi.com/fuckhux)


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